LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ORIGIN 

OF THE ^ 1 

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 

(CAMPBELLITES) 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTENNIAL 

ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF 

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL 



BY 

WILLIAM H.'WHITSITT, D.D., LL.D. 

I < 

PROFESSOR IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 




NEW YORK 

A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 

1888 

C-:> 




'^'^'^s 



Copyright, 1888, 
By WILLIAM H. WHITSITT. 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Sandemai^ians 1 

11. "The Ancient Order op Things" 6 

III. "The Ancient Gospel" 16 

lY. "The Ancient Gospel" Improved 23 

Y. The Haldaneans 33 

YI. Mr. Campbell's Perversion to Sandeman- 

lANiSM (First Stage) 51 

YII. Mr. Campbell's Earliest Success as a 

Propagandist 62 

YIII. Mr. Campbell's Perversion to Sandeman- 

lANiSM {Second Stage) 76 

IX. Baptism for the Remission of Sins .... 91 

X. Other Items 102 

ill 



ORIGIN OP THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SANDEMANIANS. 



The Disciples of Christ — commonly called 
Campbellites, from the name of their founder, Mr. 
Alexander Campbell of Bethany, West Virginia — 
are an offshoot of the Sandemanian sect of Scotland. 
This latter sect was established in the early portion 
of the eighteenth century by Mr. John Glas, a minis- 
ter of the Established Church of Scotland. Mr. Glas 
was placed over the parish of Tealing, near Dundee, 
Forfarshire, in the year 1719. (Narrative of the Rise 
and Progress of the Controversy about the National 
Covenants. By Mr. John Glas, late Minister of the 
Gospel at Tealing. Second edition, Dundee, 1828, 
p. 159.) The region of country in which his resi- 
dence was situated seems to have been considerably 
infested by Dissenters of the type called Cameronians, 
who made a loud noise against the Kirk of Scotland 
because she had now departed, in some respects, from 
the letter of the National Covenants, asserting that 



2 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

by this means she had lost the right to be styled a 
Church of Christ. 

In order to meet the objections of these adversaries, 
Mr. Glas resolved to investigate the whole question 
of national covenanting in the light of the Scriptures. 
The issue of these researches was different from any 
thing he had anticipated. By means of them he not 
only withdrew the foundation of strict biblical pre- 
cept from beneath the feet of the Cameronians, but 
the supports upon which his own Church was estab- 
lished were, in his judgment, likewise destroyed. 
These covenants, whether in their ancient or their 
modern observance, proceeded all alike upon the sup- 
position that a connection between Church and State 
is in accordance with the teachings of the Sacred 
Word. (Glas's Narrative, pp. 1-25, also p. 139.) 
On his attaining to the conviction that a union of this 
nature was not provided for in the New Testament, 
Mr. Glas became displeased with his own position in 
the Established Church, as well as with the represen- 
tations of the Cameronians. He was more than ever 
confirmed in the resolution " to take to himself no 
other rule but the word of God." 

His reflections upon that Word now speedily made 
him aware that the rite of communion, as it was 
observed in his own and other parishes, was not 
strictly in accordance with the pattern of the apos- 
tolical churches. Many persons of the weakest pre- 
tensions to pious living, and many more who made 
no claims to any special renewal by the Spirit of 



THE SANBEMANIANS. 3 

holiness, were entitled^ in virtue of their birthright, 
to the benefits of a position at 'the table of the Lord. 
This posture of circumstances had become unendur- 
able to him. 

Accordingly, on the 13th of July 1725, he sought 
to relieve his conscience by organizing a conventicle 
within the boundaries of his parish, composed of those 
only who he believed had experienced a complete 
change of heart. (Memoranda of John Glas and 
Robert Sandeman, collected from MS. notes of the 
late James Scott, member of the church in Dundee ; 
in Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, Dun- 
dee, 1851, p. 118. Compare also Glas's Narrative, 
pp. 103 and 113.) 

When the literalistic tendency of Mr. Glas had 
resulted in this ecclesiola in ecclesia^ it became the 
means of directing public attention to his proceed- 
ings. A communion occasion at Strathmartine, on 
the 6th of August, 1726, served to bring him face 
to face with the opposition that was gathering head 
against him. Echoes of the rising strife were also 
heard in the Presbytery of Dundee, at its session on 
the 7th of September following. The affair likewise 
came to discussion, after an informal fashion, in the 
Synod of Angus and Mearns when it convened in 
October 1726. 

Nothing of consequence was done in the premises 
until the 17th of October 1727, at which date the 
Synod of Angus and Mearns laid upon the Pres- 
bytery of Dundee, to which the parish of Tealing 



4 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

belonged, the duty of bringing Mr. Glas to trial at a 
special session which they should convene for that 
purpose ; and ordered that these in turn should bring 
the results of their investigations before the Synod, 
at its next session at Brechin in April 1728. This 
mandate was observed ; and after due deliberation was 
had, the Synod of Angus and Mearns, on the 18th 
of April 1728, pronounced a sentence of suspension 
from the ministry against Mr. Glas, for promulgating 
sentiments hostile to the National Covenants and to 
the union of Church and State in any form. An 
appeal was taken to the General Assembly, which 
convened about a fortnight later, on the 2d of May, 
which, however, confirmed the action of the Synod. 
Meanwhile, Mr. Glas having laid himself liable to 
the charge of contumacy by continuing to preach the 
obnoxious doctrine after his suspension from office, 
a sentence of deposition was passed against him by 
the Synod in October 1728. An appeal being taken 
against this new sentence, it was likewise confirmed 
by decision of the Commission of the Assembly, at a 
meeting appointed to consider the case, on the 12th 
of March 1730. (The above facts are taken from, 
Glas's Narrative, as cited on a preceding page.) 

The brief outlines which have just been given will 
avail, in some sort, to bring before the reader a view 
of the special occasion that induced Mr. Glas to rebel 
against the Kirk of Scotland, and of the main inci- 
dents of the process that was thereupon entered 
against him. His own reflections concerning the 



THE SANBEMANIANS, 5 

teachings of the Scriptures had brought him to em- 
brace the position of the English Independents in 
relation to the question concerning the proper church 
order, while the action of the constituted authorities 
had already destroyed his sympathy for the National - 
Establishment. 

Though his followers and himself were in the cus- 
tom of designating themselves, and the churches they 
subsequently organized, by the name of " Independ- 
ents " (Glas, Narrative, p. 110 ; also Memoir of Mr. 
John Glas, prefixed to the Narrative, p. xvii), or 
sometimes Oongregationalists (Memoir of Mr. John 
Glas, prefixed to Narrative, p. xxvi), yet they made 
no effort to form relations with the people who in 
England bear those names. On the contrary, they 
stood wholly aloof; and, guided by the Scriptures, 
they resolved to work out from this source, alone 
and without any assistance, the more minute details 
of the constitution, life, worship, and discipline of 
the churches of the New-Testament period. The 
passion they had acquired for contradicting the usages 
and the doctrines of the "popular clergy" was so 
keen that they were soon driven into excesses ; and 
before they progressed very far there had arisen so 
large a variety of convictions and usages, that many 
of the individual bodies differed from each other in 
regard to a number of particulars, while each single 
item, though never so insignificant in appearance, 
was liable to become an occasion of separation. 



THE DJSCJPLMS OF CHEJST. 



CHAPTER XL 

"THE ANCIENT OEDEK OF THINGS." 

The tithing of mint anise and cummin, it has 
been suggested, became the principal concern of Mr. 
Glas and his followers. The work was begun only a 
few months after the sentence of deposition from the 
Kirk of Scotland had been confirmed. Mr. Glas had 
an uncommon amount of confidence in the capacity 
of the poorest of the brethren to divine the truth of 
God from the biblical word, and often boasted that 
he got hints from them which served to open and ex- 
plain many things which he had not previously under- 
stood. During the summer of 1730, while he was 
absent in the Highlands for the benefit of his health, 
these humble people raised a scruple in the church 
over which he now presided in Dundee, regarding the 
ruling elders, which, as former Presbyterians, they 
had adopted from the constitution of the Established 
Church. The pastor was speedily fetched from his 
summer retreat for the purpose of adjusting the diffi- 
culty. This enterprise was accomplished by abolish- 
ing the office of ruling elders, and substituting in 
their stead a plurality of elders, whose duty it should 
be both to preach and to teach. (Memoranda of John 



" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS.'' 7 

Glas and Robert Sandeman, as found in the Letters 
and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, pp. 118, 119.) 
The fashion of employing a plurality of elders is 
likewise found among the Disciples of America. 

To an aged member of the church, also presumably 
one of the poorest of the people, is due the innovation 
of weekly communion in the Lord's Supper. The 
conventicle which Mr. Glas had gathered around him 
was at first in the habit of monthly celebrating the 
Lord's Supper. The person referred to suggested 
the inquiry why they should meet every month for 
that purpose, and not once or twice in the year, as 
the churches of the Establishment were in the custom 
of doing. A debate was held regarding the business, 
by means of which it was concluded that both of 
these practices were without example in the New 
Testament; and thereupon the weekly service was 
enjoined. (Memoranda of John Glas and Robert 
Sandeman, in the place above cited, p. 119.) The 
Disciples also observe this usage. 

In the beginning of the movement it was expected 
that the elders, of whom there were indispensably two 
or three in every church, should sustain themselves, 
by their own exertions, in some trade or profession 
outside of the ministry. This peculiarity has been 
retained, with considerable tenacity, in some of the 
Sandemanian churches. (An Account of the Chris- 
tian Practices of the Church in Barnsbury Grove, 
Barnsbury, London, 1878, p. 10.) The early Dis- 
ciples, in their turn, laid much stress upon this point 



8 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

(Christian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 91, pp. 28, 29, 43, 87, 
46); but of late they are becoming less strenuous 
regarding it. 

Seeing that he was now fairly launched upon a 
career of literalism, Mr. Glas would soon perceive 
that it was impossible to find in the New-Testament 
writings any documents like the Longer and Shorter 
Catechisms of the Kirk of Scotland. Accordingly, in 
the year 1736, he published a pamphlet under the 
title of " The Usefulness of Catechisms Considered," 
and takes the occasion to discourage the employment 
of them by his followers. The Confession of Faith, 
in its turn, was abolished. Besides the fact that there 
was directly no Divine command enjoining its exist- 
ence, the Westminster Confession had been, in some 
sort, the occasion of his displacement from the parish 
at Tealing. 

The attention of the party was soon directed to 
the love-feast which prevailed in the early Christian 
Church ; and, with the courage of their convictions, 
this observance was also added as an indispensable 
mark of a genuine Church of Christ. Their success- 
ors in England are quite as stringent as were the 
Sandemanians of the eighteenth century in requiring 
the presence of each and every member on these occa- 
sions. (Barnsbury Grove, as above, p. 10.) Mr. 
Campbell, the founder of the Disciples, seriously con- 
sidered this matter ; but, while he allowed that the 
custom was of biblical authority, and might be " found 
useful when the ancient order of things is restored " 



*' THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS,'' 9 

(Christian Baptist, edit. 6, pp. 283, 284), he yet lacked 
a sufficient amount of courage to enjoin the observ- 
ance of it. On the other hand, he was fully as clear 
as the Sandemanians in his denunciations of church 
catechisms, creeds and confessions of faith. 

The Sandemanians were easily able to discover that 
the kiss of charity was several times enjoined in the 
apostolical letters, and hence this observance was fre- 
quently found among them. Mr. Campbell's courage 
and devotion to the distinct commands of the word • 
of God failed him entirely at this point. (Christian 
Baptist, edit. 6, 224. Compare also Richardson, vol. 
ii. p. 129, where Mr. Campbell had an opportunity to 
resist this observance in a small church at Pittsburg, 
which professed Sandemanian views.) 

The conditions were almost the same in the case 
of feet-washing. This practice was also regarded by 
numbers of the Sandemanians as an important mark 
of a true Church of Christ. It is still observed by 
them (Barnsbury Grove, p. 8), but they do not now 
appear to consider it of the same binding necessity 
as formerly. Mr. Campbell rejected it entirely 
(Christian Baptist, pp. 222, 223), as a church observ- 
ance, though he was not averse that it should be 
performed as an expression of private hospitality. 

The Sandemanians early became convinced that it 
was an article of capital concern, that their adherents 
should abstain from eating blood. In this connec- 
tion they insisted upon the letter of the passage at 
Acts XV. 20, 28, 29. No distinct allusion, on the part 



10 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

of the Disciples, to the binding force of this apostoli- 
cal prohibition, can be remembered. 

The Sandemanians laid unusual stress upon the 
intercessory prayer of our Lord, in the seventeenth 
chapter of the Gospel according to John ; holding that 
it inculcates the necessity of absolute unanimity, on 
the part of the various members, in every transaction 
• by an individual church. In order to obtain this in- 
dispensable unanimity, the parties who may entertain 
such objections as they are unable to surrender are 
incontinently expelled from the communion. (Barns- 
bury Grove, p. 14.) The Disciples likewise insist 
with earnestness upon the passage in question ; but 
they understand that it refers to the organic union of 
all who profess and call themselves Christians, on the 
basis of the plea which themselves have a charge to 
urge upon the attention of the religious public. 

A modified type of communism prevailed, and is 
still professed, among the Sandemanians. (Richard- 
son, vol. i. p. 71.) The personal estate of a com- 
municant could be retained by him after entering the 
fraternity, but always with the understanding that it 
was subject to the demands of the necessitous, espe- 
cially those of them who chanced to be of the house- 
hold of faith. Accordingly it was expected that their 
brethren should not lay up any further treasures on 
earth than such as they were possessed of at the time 
of their reception. (Andrew Fuller, Strictures on 
Sandemanianism, Letter IX.) In order to prevent 
this from taking place, the surplus above their actual 



*' THE ANCIENT OBDEIi OF THINGS,'' 11 

necessities in the way of subsistence was to be con- 
tributed to the " Fellowship," which is the name they 
derived from Acts ii. 42, for the collection for the 
poor. (Barnsbury Grove, pp. 6, 7, also pp. 8, 9 ; cf. 
Letters and Discourses of R. Sandeman, p. 42.) The 
Disciples, on the contrary, have never pressed the 
principle of communism to the same extent ; but they 
have adopted the nomenclature of the Sandemanians 
in the matter of the weekly collection (Christian 
Baptist, edit. 6, pp. 209, 166, 359) which is ordinarily 
designated as " the Fellowship " in their literature. 
(See also Christian Baptist, pp. 389, 391, 408, 413, 
for other instances of the employment of this term 
in the writings of Sandemanian churches.) 

The custom of mutual exhortation, as a regular 
part of religious worship, was in vogue among many 
of the Sandemanian fraternities. They justified this 
proceeding by a literal interpretation of 1 Cor. xiv. ' 
31. It was often assigned a place in the observances 
of the Sabbath day ; but the church of Barnsbury 
Grove, London, has now removed it to the Wednes- 
day-evening meeting. (Barnsbury Grove, p. 7.) 

The business of exhortation was likewise attendee 
to in the first church that was organized by the Dis* 
ciples in America, as also in the kindred Sandeman- 
ian church under the charge of Walter Scott in 
Pittsburgh, Penn. ; but so many evils grew out of 
it, that after a series of years Mr. Campbell became 
impatient of it, and succeeded in persuading his fol- 
lowers to surrender their liberty in this regard. 



12 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

(Richardson, Memoirs of A. Campbell, vol. ii. pp. 
125-129.) 

A portion of the Sandemanian fraternity were so 
strict in their literalism, that, because there is no di- 
rect injunction commanding the observance of family 
prayer, and because there is a Divine command to 
enter into the closet and pray in secret, they would 
•inveigh against this practice as savoring of a tendency 
to proselytism. (Christian Baptist, edit. 2, Buffalo, 
Va., 1827, p. 76.) Others of the party discouraged 
the habit of family prayer, on the ground that it 
is " unlawful, provided any part of the family be 
unbelievers, seeing it is holding communion with 
them." (Braidwood's Letters, as cited by Andrew 
Fuller in his Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter 
IX.) 

In his earlier years Mr. Campbell was influenced 
by this latter view of the subject, and at one time 
seriously proposed to his father the inquiry " whether 
family prayer is proper in a family composed in part 
of unbelievers." (Richardson, vol. i. p. 449.) Un- 
like the Sandemanians, however, who could find "no 
precept or precedent for family worship " in the bibli- 
cal writings (Fuller, Strictures on Sandemanianism, 
Letter IX.), Mr. Campbell was fortunate enough to 
discover a justification of the practice in the patri- 
archal dispensation, which he denominated "the 
family worship institution " (Christian System, Beth- 
any, Va., 1840, pp. 128-133) ; and, notwithstanding 
the youthful scruples referred to above, he appears 



" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS.'' 13 

to have performed the duty with a commendable 
degree of diligence and spirit. 

The same people who could not reconcile it to their 
views to pray or to enjoy any kind of religious observ- 
ance in the family circle with those who were not in 
communion with them at the Lord's Supper, yet had 
no scruples against accompanying respectable persons 
of whatever creed, or of no creed at all, to the theatre, 
or against joining with them in the dance or other 
social amusements which are commonly condemned 
by the more serious portion of the religious com- 
munity. (Barnsbury Grove, p. 9 ; compare Fuller's 
Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter 11. ; and Letter 
of John Glas to Edward Gorril, in Letters and Dis- 
courses of R. S., p. 88.) 

Mr. Campbell was not guilty of this kind of extrav- 
agance ; but the sentiment of the Sandemanians in 
the matter of theatres, dancing, and other diversions, 
appears to have survived in the Mormon community, 
who, as will be suggested later on, are connected, 
through the Disciples, with the Sandemanian stock. 

It would be natural to expect that those who were 
unwilling to engage in family prayer where unbeliev- 
ing members might belong to the household, should 
also be forward to propose objections to the presence 
of any but communicants at the public services of the 
Church. A portion of the Sandemanian Churches 
acceded to the demand of their peculiar logic in this 
particular, and were solicitous to exclude from their 
public worship all who might not belong to their own 



14 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

community. (Cliristiaii Baptist, edit. 6, p. 389 ; also 
a Letter from the Elders of the Church in Dundee to 
the Elders of the Church in Edinburgh, as found in 
the Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, 
Dundee, 1851, pp. 116, 117.) 

Mr. Campbell, in his turn, was much taken with 
this peculiarity of the Sandemanians. His biographer 
is our authority for the statement that the first church 
he organized — at Brush Run in Pennsylvania — did 
not recognize as duly prepared to partake in religious 
services any persons except such as had professed to 
put on Christ in baptism ; or, in other words, those 
who chanced to be members of that special organi- 
zation. Later in life he was persuaded to recede 
from this extreni position ; but he appears to have 
always regrette . his course in that regard, longing 
in vain for th exclusive attitude of his youthful 
time. (Richardson, vol. i. p. 454.) 

The Sandemanians made a deal of noise over the 
point that the first day of the week is not properly 
a Sabbath, at least holding that it is not a duty 
incumbent upon Christian people to observe it in 
the same fashion as the Sabbath was observed by the 
Jewish nation under the Old-Testament economy. 
They regarded the Christian Sabbath as merely 
designed for the celebration of divine ordinances 
(Barnsbury Grove, p. 4), and did not conceive that 
they were engaged to sanctify the day according to 
the strict usage of the Scottish Kirk. When the con- 
cerns of public worship had been duly cared for, the 



" TRE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS.'' 15 

balance of the day might be passed m such pleasures 
as would scarcely comport with the claim that it was 
anyway more holy than other days. (Andrew Fuller, 
Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter IX.) 

The Disciples likewise decline to regard the first 
day of the week as a Sabbath, or even to call it by 
that name. The fourth command of the Decalogue, 
they hold, is applicable to the seventh day, but it does 
not refer to Sunday. On this account thej^ have now 
and then been charged with the crime of paying no 
respect to the Fourth Commandment. Claims of 
that nature, however, are commonly based upon a mis- 
conception. The public worship which the Disciples, 
like the Sandemanians. consider it their duty to ob- 
serve on the Lord's Day, occupies about as many hours 
of time and service as customarily are passed in that 
way by those who are willing to consider the day as 
a Sabbath. The only matter worthy of attention in 
this connection is, that the party are in the habit of 
proposing the same distinction regarding this subject 
that was urged, before their time, by the Sandeman- 
ians. (Richardson, vol. i. pp. 432-435.) 



16 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 



CHAPTER III. 

"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL.'* 

The main strength and care of the Sandemanian 
party, during the first twenty-five years of its exist- 
ence, were exerted in the direction of the constitution, 
life and worship of the Church. In the development 
of these it may be suspected, without any grave lack 
of charity, that they were influenced, to some extent, 
by a desire to antagonize the usages of the Kirk of 
Scotland. The points brought forward in the pre- 
ceding section will suggest, in several instances, the 
operation of a spirit of contradiction. For example, 
the scruple against the propriety of family prayer may 
have had some kind of reference to the circumstance 
that this was, at the moment, an almost universal 
custom of the Scottish country. The tenet against 
the sanctification of the Sabbath was likewise very 
offensive to the majority of religious people in Scot- 
land. Historical records are believed to indicate that 
the custom of observing the Lord's Supper every Sun- 
day had a degree of reference to the circumstance 
that the Kirk folk commonly celebrated the sacra- 
ment but once or twice in* the year. 

In brief, the Sandemanians were almost always and 



" THE ANCIENT GOSPELS 17 

everywhere in the opposition. This spirit of oppo- 
sition displayed itself when, in due course of time, 
they found it desirable to give a portion of their at- 
tention to the doctrines which their Church should 
maintain. The influence of the Methodist movement 
was by that time beginning to be recognized in Scot- 
land. While the Calvinistic theologians felt impelled 
to resist the views of Mr. Wesley at various points in 
the department of soteriology, it is none the less true, 
that, through the influence of Whitefield, these had 
gained some degree of currency in the land of Knox. 
Methodist influences were very much extended in the 
party of Seceders, who went away from the Estab- 
lished Church in 1732, only a few years after the 
expulsion of Mr. Glas. 

Mr. James Hervey, a member of Wesley's " godly 
club " at Oxford, who subsequently adhered to the 
predestinarian views of Whitefield, in the year 1755 
had published a work under the title of " Dialogues 
between Theron and Aspasio," that were received 
with much popularity. The views that were there 
set forth regarding the nature of justifying faith and 
the process of salvation were pretty strongly tinctured 
with Methodist sentiment, but they were not on that 
account any the less welcome to wide circles of his 
readers in Scotland. 

Two years later a son-in-law of Mr. Glas's — Mr. 
Robert Sandeman, who likewise had a sort of mission 
to contend against the "popular preachers" and 
" popular doctrines " — came forward with a review 



18 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

of the performance of Mr. Hervey, entitled " Letters 
on Theron and Aspasio." In this production he 
strictly combats the notion advanced by Hervey, 
that saving faith embraces in its contents any " real 
persuasion that the blessed Jesus has shed his blood 
for me^ or has fulfilled all righteousness in my stead ; " 
and also the position that any ''appropriation of Christ 
is essential to faith." (Sandeman, Letters on Theron 
and Aspasio, New York, 1838, p. 4.) What he sev- 
eral times christens as ''the ancient gospel" (p. 117, 
p. 297, p. 412 ; Epistolary Correspondence, p. 25, p. 
83), recognizes as " involved in the contents of justi- 
fying faith nothing else than simply believing the 
record, or crediting the testimony of God." (Letters, 
as above, p. 21.) In order to believe the record, Mr. 
Sandeman wholly discredits the notion that there is 
a necessity for the operation of the Spirit (pp. 29, 30). 
He suggests that the Spirit "who breathes in the 
Scriptures never speaks a word to any man beside 
what he publicly speaks there ; " and he " will not 
bear to hear the living and powerful Word of God, 
on any pretence or under color of any distinction 
whatsoever, called a dead letter.'''' 

In the " Letters on Theron and Aspasio," though 
his tone is extremely bitter and arrogant, he is never- 
theless more moderate than he exhibits himself in 
some of his subsequent productions. The " Episto- 
lary Correspondence between S. P(ike) and R. S(an- 
deman) " transcends all the previous limits which he 
had assigned to his passion. There he claims that 



''THE ANCIENT GOSPELS 19 

faith is " the bare belief of the bare truth," and that it 
does not even imply so much as a hearty persuasion. 
In this bare belief he was also at pains to specify that 
the mind of the subject is not active, but passive ; for, 
if the mind were active in the matter of Crediting the 
testimony of Christ, this would be the same as to 
allow that we are justified by an act of the human 
mind. 

Mr. Sandeman, who invented the phrase " ancient 
gospel," is likewise believed to be the inventor of 
the very common Disciple phrase, " the good confes- 
sion," which several times occurs in the " Letters on 
Theron and Aspasio " (p. 487). In another part of 
the same work he gives himself the pains to explain 
what are the contents of this confession : " There is 
but one genuine truth that can save men. To illus- 
trate this matter, let it be remembered that the 
saving truth which the apostles believed was, Tliat 
Jesus is the Christ. The apostles had one uniform 
fixed sense to these words; and the whole New 
Testament is writ to ascertain to us in what sense 
they understood them." (Letters etc., p. 258.) 

Nearly all of these peculiarities come to sight in 
the theology of the Disciples. Their gospel is com- 
monly denominated ''the ancient gospel." In the 
"Christian Baptist," of which he was the editor, may 
be found a series of ten different essays from the 
hand of Mr. Campbell, under that title. The '' popu- 
lar doctrine" and the "popular preachers" are as 
liberally denounced, and commonly with the same 



20 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

cant expressions, in the pages of that periodical, as 
in any of the writings of the Sandemanians. 

Mr. Campbell is also as clear as his teacher was, 
that the root and substance of religion is found 
in knowledge, exclusive of approbation: "evidence 
alone produces faith, or testimony is all that is ne- 
cessary to faith." (Christian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 58.) 
In his " Dialogue between Timothy and Austin," he 
is believed to come near to the position of Sandeman, 
that the Spirit never speaks a word to any man 
besides what he publicly speaks in the Scriptures. 
Walter Scott, one of his leading assistants, was also 
a diligent disciple of Sandeman's. In that character 
he affirms that " the body of Christ is increased by 
the belief of the bare truth that Jesus is the Son 
of God and our Saviour." (Christian Baptist, edit. 6, 
p. 21.) 

The distinction which Mr. Sandeman acquired by 
means of his labors in the department of Christian 
doctrine was so great, that in a brief season he began 
to outshine Mr. Glas, who was the founder of the 
sect. In England and other countries where his 
writings were circulated, they produced a somewhat 
violent controversy, in which the name of Glas was 
but seldom heard. By degrees, therefore, it befell 
that the adherents of the fraternity came to be 
known as Sandemanians almost everywhere outside 
of the limits of Scotland; and even there the cus- 
tomary designation has come to be Glasites or San- 
demanians, a circumstance which shows that the 



'' THE ANCIENT GOSPEL,'' 21 

impression produced by Sandeman was profound 
and enduring. 

It is not important to the purpose in hand, to lay- 
before the reader any detailed account of the literary 
opponents who entered the lists against the princi- 
ples that were advanced by Mr. Sandeman. The 
names of a few of the most prominent will be suffi- 
cient to show that he was not neglected. Mr. John 
Wesley was among the first to come forward with 
a brief essay, which he published anonymously as 
"A Sufficient Answer to the Author of the Letters 
on Theron and Aspasio." Mr. W. Cudworth, a 
Dissenting minister of prominence in London, first 
entered into a private correspondence with Sande- 
man (Letters and Discourses of R. Sandeman, p. 37), 
and afterwards published a couple of volumes against 
him. The earliest of these, printed in the year 1760, 
at London, was entitled '' A Defence of Theron and 
Aspasio against the Objections contained in a Late 
Treatise, entitled Letters on Theron and Aspasio." 
The next year appeared " The Polyglot, or Hope of 
Eternal Life according to the Various Sentiments 
of the Present Day." 

In America, the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, D.D., took 
part in the conflict with a work entitled, " Theron, 
Paulinus, and Aspasio ; or. Letters and Dialogues on 
the Nature of Love to God, Faith in Christ, and 
Assurance of a Title to Eternal Life," 1768, 1759 ; 
as also in the year 1762, with " An Essay on the 
Nature and Glory of the Gospel; designed as a 
Supplement to the Letters and Dialogues." 



22 THE DISCIPLES OF C HEIST, 

Mr. Isaac Backus likewise gave attention to the 
issues involved, in a volume published at Boston in 
1767, under the title, '^ True Faith will produce Good 
Works. A Discourse wherein are opened the Nature 
of Faith, and its Powerful Influence on the Heart and 
Life : together with the Contrary Nature and Effects 
of Unbelief : and Answers to Various Objections. To 
which are prefixed, A Brief View of the Present State 
of the Protestant World, with some Remarks on the 
Writings of Mr. Sandeman." 

Some years afterwards, Mr. Andrew Fuller of 
England was drawn into the controversy by means 
of an attack upon his position, in the second edition 
of a work by Mr. Archibald M'Lean of Edinburgh, 
entitled " The Commission of Christ." In this trea.- 
tise, Mr. McLean having set forth some objections to 
the views of Fuller, the latter replied in an appendix 
to his book called ''The Gospel Worthy of All Accep- 
tation." The answer of Mr. M'Lean appeared under 
the title of " A Reply to Mr. Fuller's Appendix to 
his Book on the Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation." 
This performance on the part of M'Lean subsequently 
called forth Fuller's "Strictures on Sandemanianism," 
which is, perhaps, the most satisfactory treatment of 
the whole subject that has yet been published on 
either side of the question. 



''THE ANCIENT GOSPEL'' IMPROVED. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 

The churches that were under the direction of 
Sandeman and Glas were making slight progress in 
different portions of Scotland, Avhen in the year 1761 
the faithful were considerably elated by tlie accession 
of the Rev. Robert Carmichael, a Seceder minister of 
the Anti-Burgher type, who presided over a church 
of that faith at Cupar in Angus. (Letters and Dis- 
courses of Robert Sandeman, p. 44, p. 93 ; cf. also 
Memoir of Archibald M'Lean, by William Jones, p. 
xxiii. This memoir is printed in front of the first 
volume of McLean's collected works, published at 
Elgin, Scotland, 1847.) 

Carmichael was forthwith assigned to duty in 
the rank^ of the sect to which he had attached his 
fortunes, and placed in charge of a church in 
Glasgow. Here it appears that he enjoyed a degree 
of success ; at any rate, he is supposed to have been 
the means of perverting from his loyalty to the Scot- 
tish Kirk, Mr. Archibald McLean, Avho entered the 
fraternity of the Sandemanian Independents in 
the year 1762. (Memoir of M'Lean, pp. xxii and 
jcxiii.) 



24 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

The satisfaction of the Sandemanians with their 
Anti-Burgher convert was of brief duration. The 
hand of Mr. Glas was found to be very heavy. 
Upon the occasion of a case of discipline in which 
Glas interfered (Letters and Discourses, p. 83), 
Carmichael became disgusted with his situation, and 
laid down the charge of the Independent Church 
in Glasgow. (Letters and Discourses, p. 44, note.) 
Archibald M'Lean, apparently a protege of Carmi- 
chael's, also retired from the sect on the same occa- 
sion. (Memoir, p. xxiii.) 

After this pair of friends had fallen into a condi- 
tion of separation from the Sandemanians, it was not 
singular that they should have qualms of conscience 
touching some of the tenets that were maintained 
by that fraternity. In this instance criticism was 
levelled against the doctrine of infant-baptism, which 
Mr. Glas had retained as a prominent item of the 
" ancient order of things." (Memoir, p. xxiii.) As 
a natural consequence, both of them in due season 
renounced the practice of infant-baptism. 

Carmichael speedily removed from Glasgow to 
Edinburgh, where he seems to have had charge of 
an Independent Church that had likely seceded from 
the community over which Mr. Robert Sandeman 
was then presiding in that city; it is believed to 
have been composed of people who took the part of 
Carmichael in the controversy that he had waged 
with Glas and Sandeman in Glasgow. They were 
only seven in number, but they invited Carmichael 



''THE ANCIENT GOSPEL'' IMPROVED. 25 

from Glasgow to be their pastor. (Memoirs of 
M'Lean, p. xxiii.) 

As he was on the point of setting out for Edin- 
burgh, Mr. McLean promised his old pastor that he 
would compose a letter, in which should be laid 
down in full his views on the subject of baptism. 
When this document was completed, it was dated 
on the 2d of July, 1764. Mr. Carmichael obtained 
it by due course of mail ; but as he was now comfort- 
ably established in Edinburgh, over a church that 
was still in doctrinal agreement with Mr. Sandeman, 
he was uncertain what might be the result in case 
he should suddenly profess his conversion to the 
views of those who opposed infant-baptism. It was 
more than possible that his adherents would refuse 
to give attention to his reasons; they might even 
dismiss him on the spot, and return to the commu- 
nity from which they had but recently taken their 
leave. Consequently Mr. Carmichael, who is sus- 
pected to have been devoid of any thing like stabil- 
ity of character, still persisted in the practice of 
baptizing infants. (Memoirs of M'Lean, pp. xxiii 
and xxiv.) 

After the lapse of a twelvemonth, however, Car- 
michael had succeeded in convincing five of his seven 
parishioners of the unlawfulness of infant-baptism, 
and of the propriety of immersion as the act of bap- 
tism. Apparently by their vote or consent, he was 
despatched to London for the purpose of obtaining 
immersion at the hands of some of the Baptist minis- 



26 THE DISCIPLES OF CURIST, 

ters of England. He was immer&ed at the baptistery 
in the Barbican, by Dr. John Gill, on the 9th of 
October 1765. On his return to Edinburgh, he in 
his turn immersed the five persons who had con- 
sorted with him, and two others ; thus laying the 
foundations of the Sandenianian Church of the im- 
mersion observance, who are otherwise designated 
by the name of " Scotch Baptists." (Memoirs, p. 
xxiv.) The Sandemanians of the aspersion observ- 
ance, under the lea.d of Sandeman and Glas, were 
in the custom of expressing their disgust against this 
unwelcome conduct on the part of a portion of their 
adherents, by denouncing the same as Anabaptists. 
(Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, Dundee, 
1851, p. 48, note.) 

After a few Aveeks, M'Lean drew nigh from Glas- 
gow, and caused himself to be immersed. In the 
month of July 1767, he went to London for the 
purpose of trying his fortunes as a printer (Memoirs, 
p. xix) ; but failing to meet with such a degree of 
encouragement as he desired, he accepted a position 
in Edinburgh which brought him into immediate 
contact with Carmichael and the immersed Sande- 
manians of that place. He entered Edinburgh in 
December 1767 ; in June 1768, he was raised from 
his station as a private member, to the dignity of 
fellow-elder with Carmichael. (Memoirs, pp. xxiv, 
xxi, XXV.) Although there were only nine mem- 
bers in the community (Benedict, ed. 2, p. 355), 
Sandemanian literalism was very strenuous to re- 



''THE ANCIENT GOSPEL'' IMPROVED. 27 

quire that they should maintain a plurality of 
elders. 

It was only a brief season before Carmichael found 
it convenient to quit the immersed Sandemanians, 
and to return to the Sandemanians of the aspersion 
observance ; in the year 1773, he was presiding over 
such a church in Edinburgh. (Memoir of Mr. William 
Braidwood, p. xvii.) It was perhaps the same church 
which Robert Sandeman left behind when he came 
to America in the year 1764. (Biography of San- 
deman, prefixed to his Discourses, Dundee, 1857, 
p. xi.) The founder of the so-called " Scotch Baptists " 
was, therefore, one of the first to leave the church 
which he had established; it is suspected that his 
convictions were either not very strong or not very 
sincere. By the defection of Carmichael, Mr. McLean 
was immediately recognized as the undisputed leader 
of the immersed Sandemanians. 

M'Lean had not been long installed in his position 
at Edinburgh before his mind was persuaded that it 
would be a feasible enterprise to make some improve- 
ments upon " the ancient gospel," as invented by the 
philosophy of Mr. Sandeman. The latter gentleman 
appeared to consider that he was set to oppose every 
prominent tenet that had come to be advocated by 
the Seceders or by others, who, within the limits of 
Scotland or elsewhere, had in any way been influ- 
enced by the progress of the Wesleyan revival. While 
the Westminster Confession had inculcated the doc- 
trine of assurance of faith, it had been studious to 



28 THE DISCIPLES OF CEBIST. 

avoid including that grace in the contents of saving 
faith. On the contrary, it expressly provides (chap, 
xviii. sec. 3) that " this infallible assurance doth not 
so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true be- 
liever may wait long, and conflict with many difficul- 
ties, before he be partaker of it ; yet, being enabled 
by the Spirit to know the things which are freely 
given him of God, he may, without extraordinary 
revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain 
thereunto." 

The Seceders and many others, including some of 
the more zealous pastors within the Established 
Church, had now begun to reckon a fixed assurance 
of one's personal acceptance as belonging among the 
invariable elements of saving faith. Sandeman nat- 
urally took umbrage against this innovation on the 
part of the " popular preachers ; " and, in keeping with 
his character and position, he was soon found at the 
opposite extreme, not only denying that assurance is 
of the essence of saving faith, but also affirming that 
the Christian could never attain to any better estate 
in this world than an assurance of the possibility/ of 
his personal salvation. He understands the " ancient 
gospel " to be that " divine truth which affi^rds hope 
to the vilest transgressor, that he may he justified^ 
that he may escape the curse." (Letter on Theron 
and Aspasio, N.Y., 1838, p. 290 ; cf. McLean's Com- 
mission of Jesus Christ, Edinburgh, 1786, p. 96, foot- 
note.) Sandeman likewise adds (p. 295) that " the 
simple belief of the gospel " (which, according to him. 



" THE ANCIENT GOSPEL " IMPROVED. 29 

is all that faith implies or embraces) "leaves a man, 
even in the full assurance of faith, or when the truth 
is most present to his thoughts, entirely at the mercy 
of God for salvation, and leads him to the greatest 
reverence for, and submission to, the Divine sove- 
reignty, without having any claim upon God whatso- 
ever, or finding any reason why God should regard 
him more than those who perish." 

Mr. M'Lean was not well content with this comfort- 
less view of his master's. Accordingly, in the work 
on the " Commission of Jesus Christ," already men- 
tioned, while he continues to accept Sandeman's con- 
ceit about the nature of evangelical faith (p. 80), he 
demurs to the conclusion that " the bare belief of the 
bare truth" will do nothing more than Sandeman 
affirmed for the benefit of the individual subject, and 
assumes the ground that this bare belief is just as 
capable of conveying the immediate assurance of sal- 
vation as was the saving faith advocated by the most 
ardent Seceder. (Commission, as above, pp. 90-98.) 

The hyper-Calvinist opinions of Sandeman were 
likewise no longer acceptable to M'Lean, seeing that 
they were employed not as ordinarily to confirm the 
assurance of the faithful, but on the contrary to pre- 
vent them from cherishing any stronger faith than 
that which affirms a possibility that the most devout 
and correct of them may be justified. That was, 
indeed, a distressing prospect which others besides 
McLean — persons who stood much nearer to the 
master — were pained to accept. 



30 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

From considerations of this kind the leader of the 
immersed wing of the Sandemanian fraternity appears 
to have conceived a certain distaste for the extreme 
views regarding the Calvinistic system of truth, which 
prevailed in the opposing camp. He was, therefore, 
able to content himself with a somewhat moderate 
position in relation to questions of that nature. 

Professing to hold in good esteem the bare belief 
by means of which Sandeman had relegated the ori- 
gin of personal religion to the sphere of the intellect, 
excluding any right operations of the emotions or of 
the will, he was nevertheless, as a matter of fact, 
unable to obtain a very high degree of confidence in 
the efficacy of an agent that was so attenuated. The 
assurance which this mere belief might be compe- 
tent to bestow was cried up, indeed, as the best arti- 
cle in that line which was then offered to the favor 
of the "professing world;" but flaming commenda- 
tions of this kind had long since become f&.miliar, 
and they were generally estimated at their proper 
value. 

In order, therefore, to improve his emasculated 
faith, — " to make assurance double sure, and take a 
bond of fate," — McLean resolved to provide this 
mere intellectual exercise with a buttress that was 
designed to support its weakness and secure its 
existence. This buttress consisted of an addition to 
the design of baptism, which necessarily had escaped 
the attention of the party which continued in the 
practice of infant-baptism. What mere belief could 



''THE ANCIENT GOSPEL'' IMPROVED, 31 

not do, in that it was weak, it was hoped might be 
performed by the immersion of believers in water. 
Accordingly Mr. McLean advances the peculiar the- 
ory of baptism for the remission of sins. (Commis- 
sion of Jesus Christ, Edinburgh, 1786, pp. 129-137). 
Baptism was clearly asserted to be necessary to sal- 
vation (pp. 131, 132) ; not in the way of baptismal 
regeneration, however, but in the way of effecting 
the remission of sins after the act of mere belief. 

Another feature of Mr. M'Lean's teaching on the 
subject of baptism is found in the fact that he 
insisted that it should be performed, not "in the 
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," as is 
the custom of the balance of the Christian world, but 
on the contrary " into the name, etc." (Commission, 
as above, pp. 110-114). He likewise maintains in 
the same connection (p. 113), that "the Holy Spirit 
was not given, in a way peculiar to the gospel dis- 
pensation, during John's baptism, nor till Christ 
was glorified." 

Each of the peculiarities above described has been 
reproduced by the Disciples (or Campbellites) in 
America. They reject infant-baptism ; they practise 
immersion exclusively for baptism ; they hold the 
necessity of baptism for the remission of sins, urging 
the very same passages of Scripture, and in the same 
way, as Archibald M'Lean, in support of that notion ; 
they insist upon the propriety of baptizing " into the 
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; " and they 
declare that the kingdom of heaven was not com- 



32 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

pletely set up until the Day of Pentecost. If the 
above were not matters of common fame, it would be 
in order to produce citations from their literature in 
each case ; but, as nobody will think or care to call 
in question the fact that these things are now cus- 
tomary in the ranks of the Disciples, it may not be 
necessary to bring forward any such special proofs of 
the statements here advanced. 



THE HALBANEANS. 33 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HALDANEANS. 

The tide of religious revival flowed so strongly in 
Scotland, that at length, just before the close of the 
eighteenth century, it reached the ranks of the laity 
also. These now began to experience an amount of 
confidence and zeal which was sufficient to induce 
them to go forward in Christian labor, and in some 
instances even to assume the functions, and to invade 
the prerogatives, of the regular clergy. The most 
prominent in this somewhat notable movement were 
the brothers Robert and James Alexander Haldane. 
They were of gentle birth and breeding. Robert, who 
was the elder, had in possession an estate which, ac- 
cording to the standard then prevalent in Scotland, 
was regarded as highly respectable. 

On the 6th of May 1797, nearly two and twenty 
years after the establishment of the first society of 
" Scotch Baptists " or immersed Sandemanians, the 
tongue of James Alexander Haldane was loosed. 
He delivered his maiden discourse to a company of 
colliers at the village of Gilmerton, in the vicinity 
of Edinburgh. His social position, combined with 
his previous experience of life, and his remarkable 



34 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

abilities in the line of popular preaching, imparted 
a high degree of interest and importance to this 
event. (Memoirs of Robert and James Alexander 
Haldane, by Alexander Haldane, Esq., New York, 
1853, pp. 140, 141.) 

James Alexander Haldane followed the sea in his 
earlier years, where he had attained the dignity of 
captain in the merchant marine, and only a short 
while previously had resigned command of the ship 
'' Melville Castle," that was engaged in the East-India 
service. (Memoirs, as above, p. 74.) After his in- 
troduction to the work of lay-preaching at Gilmerton, 
Mr. Haldane was seized with an unwonted degree of 
religious fervor and pious solicitude. A little more 
than two months from that date, on the 12th of July, 
he set forward on a missionary journey to the High- 
lands of Scotland, which was rewarded with so large 
a share of encouragement and success, that, before it 
was concluded on the 7th of November 1797, his 
name and his enterprise were the occasion of general 
remark. 

Events now fell out with much rapidity in the 
progress of the revival. Instead of remaining quietly 
in the bosom of the Kirk, where was ample room for 
them, and many gave their sympathy, the Haldane 
brothers were soon taking steps which looked in the 
direction of a secession from that institution. On 
the 11th of Januarj^, 1798, was formed by them and 
such of their friends as would allow their names to be 
used in that relation, a " Society for Propagating the 



THE HALBANEANS. 35 

Gospel at Home." (Memoirs, pp. 178, 179.) A single 
year was space enough, after this step had been per- 
formed, for the movement to develop into a church 
organization. In January 1799, the first Haldanean 
society was constituted at Edinburgh, and on the 3d 
of February they publicly ordained James A. Haldane 
to be their pastor. (Memoirs, p. 217.) 

The public are familiar with the marvels that were 
accomplished by the promoters of this enterprise in 
the period between the years 1797 and 1808, as like- 
wise with the lamentable declension which then set 
in and almost in a day destroyed its usefulness and 
promise. 

The causes of that unhappy catastrophe are pretty 
clearly suggested in the biography of the Haldanes 
already cited ; by the aid of the light which is there 
supplied, it is possible to trace the operation of these 
causes from stage to stage in the downward course. 
At the very beginning of the undertaking, James A. 
Haldane chanced to be on an intimate footing with 
a certain Dr. Charles Stuart of Dunearn (Memoirs, 
p. 140). This gentleman was likewise of noble 
blood, of excellent learning, many attractive social 
qualities, and of the queerest kind of a head. He 
had begun life as a minister in the Established Kirk. 
After his accession to the parish of Cramond, near 
Edinburgh, he was united in marriage to a daughter 
of the venerable John Erskine, the leader of the 
evangelical wing in that institution (Memoirs, pp. 
125, 126) ; but he was not appointed to pursue his 



36 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

career in peace and usefulness. The biographer of 
the Haldanes (p. 141) declares that "in his thirst for 
general information and the society of good men, 
Dr. Stuart had gone from the Divinity Hall in Edin- 
burgh, to some of the Dissenting Academies in 
London, and there imbibed notions unfavorable to 
the union between Church and State." Whatever 
may be the fact regarding his visits to London, the 
notions which he entertained and propagated on that 
topic were to be had much nearer home ; they were 
the leading article of the Independents, or Sande- 
manians, and might be read any day in the " Testi- 
mony of the King of Martyrs," the principal work 
of Mr. John Glas. It was published in Edinburgh, 
just under the nose of ]3r. Stuart, and was kept 
on sale in most of the booksellers' shops of the 
country. 

More than this. Dr. Stuart had acquired convictions 
against the propriety of the practice of infant-bap- 
tism and against the mode of baptism by aspersion ; 
and at the moment when he conceived his perhaps 
interested admiration for James A. Haldane, he was 
duly numbered in the lists of the " Scotch Baptists," 
or Sandemanians of the immersion observance (Mem- 
oirs, p. 141, p. 838, and pp. 611, 612) ; and was a 
member of Archibald McLean's Church (Memoirs of 
William Braid wood, p. 36, note). 

When James A. Haldane preached his first ser- 
mon in the evening of the 6th of May 1797, this 
ardent and excellent " Scotch Baptist " was present to 



THE HALBANEANS. 37 

applaud the effort. He seems almost upon the spot 
to have conceived the ambition to make a proselyte 
of his friend. He declared that to see him a Baptist 
would be the consummation of his earthly felicity. 
He "took much pains to inculcate Baptist views 
upon Haldane ; attended his ministry, listened to his 
preaching with rapt admiration, and called on him 
two or three times in every week to discuss the topics 
which were delivered from the pulpit." No art or 
blandishment of the determined and skilful prose- 
lytizer was neglected. It is with justice that the 
biographer admits (p. 141), " There is no doubt that 
Dr. Stuart's influence on Mr. James Haldane was 
considerable, as it was also on several other eminent 
men." In sad truth this excellent, wrong-Keaded 
gentleman was the evil genius of the Haldanes and 
of their cause. Had they at the outset possessed a 
sufficient amount of insight and foresight to have 
bestowed upon him a firm and enduring repulse, they 
might have escaped the shipwreck which shortly 
stranded themselves and their movement on the 
shallows of Sandemanian literalism. 

We are given to understand that there were " sev- 
eral other eminent men " over whom Dr. Stuart ex- 
erted a degree of injurious influence. Notable among 
these was Mr. Greville Ewing, one of the leading 
co-adjutors of the Haldanes. Already before the 
year 1795 there were possibly some relations of inti- 
macy between Stuart and Ewing, for in that year we 
find the latter advocating the practice of "mutual 



38 THE DISCIPLES OF CUBIST. 

exhortation" from the pulpit of Lady Glenorchy's 
chapel in Edinburgh, where he was assistant to the 
Rev. Dr. Jones. (Facts and Documents respecting 
the Connections which have subsisted between Robert 
Haldane, Esq., and Greville Ewing. By Greville 
Ewing. Glasgow 1809, pp, 127, 128, note.) Mr. 
Ewing likewise declares elsewhere in the same work 
(p. 8), that the origin of his dissatisfaction with the 
Church of Scotland, of which he was a minister, " was 
the exercise of a power by church courts over minis- 
ters and congregations, which restrained the former 
from preaching wherever they had an opportunity, 
and the latter from adopting any plan for mutual 
edification and comfort," — a kind of scruple which, 
in the latter instance, has a decided odor of Dr. 
Stuart and the Sandemanians. 

In the year 1796, a twelvemonth before the project 
of the Haldanes was mooted, the celebrated " Mis- 
sionary Magazine " was commenced " under the aus- 
pices of Dr. Stuart, with Mr. Ewing as editor." 
(Memoirs, p. 141.) A connection of this kind, in 
which an active and prominent minister of the Kirk 
allowed himself to become, in a certain sort, the 
spokesman, if not the creature, of a leading character 
among the " Scotch Baptists," could not fail to excite 
remark and to give offence. It was, therefore, in no 
way singular that Mr. Ewing's position in the Estab- 
lishment should every day become more untenable. 
(Memoirs, p. 179.) In the progress of time and in- 
struction, his conversion to the practices and tenets 



THE HALDANEANS, 89 

of the immersed Sandemanians might have become 
as complete and extensive as that of the brothers 
Haldane subsequently was, if the relation with Stuart 
had not been early broken off by changes Avhich will 
be mentioned in their place farther on. The " Mis- 
sionary Magazine " was not infrequently supplied 
with articles which suggested that the editor was 
making fair advances in the doctrines of the proprie- 
tor. (Memoirs, p. 214.) 

When it is brought to mind that this same 
" Missionary Magazine," '-'• under the auspices of Dr. 
Stuart," and whose editor was, after a fashion, his 
disciple, became from the beginning the official 
organ of the Haldanean enterprise, it will be ap- 
j)arent how large a hold the immersed wing of the 
Sandemanian sect had acquired upon the fortunes 
and the future of a promising cause. To some minds 
it may seem a fair conclusion that it was never possi- 
ble for the new church to have attained permanent 
success. Too many elements, which could signify 
no other fate than early disaster, were present at its 
inception. None of the least of these may be per- 
ceived in the circumstance tliat when, in the month 
of December 1798, the project of founding a church 
was broached, Mr. Ewing, "as being most familiar 
with such matters, was requested to draw up a plan 
for its government." (Memoirs, p. 214.) 

For a season after the inauguration of the earliest 
church, in January 1799, the best wishes of the Hal- 
danes were fulfilled ; but it was a sadly brief season. 



40 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

The storms which they had not the wisdom and 
experience to forecast speedily began to gather about 
their heads. As soon as Mr. Ewing had seceded 
from the Church of Scotland, he placed himself at the 
service of Robert Haldane to be employed in for- 
warding the plans that gentleman had in mind. Mr. 
Haldane had made arrangements to send a class of 
students to Gosport, England, where they might 
remain for a time under the care of the well-known 
Dr. Bogue, as a means of preparing them for the 
work of the ministry. But it was given to Mr. 
Ewing to persuade his friend that it would be wiser 
to commit these students to his own care, since there 
were somewhat decided objections against Dr. Bogue 
in Scotland, and perhaps elsewhere, on the score of 
his liberal politics. On the 2d of January 1799, 
Greville Ewing opened his seminary of theology in 
Edinburgh. The number of pupils at first was 
twenty-four, derived from various denominations, 
except the Congregationalists or Sandemanians ; but 
before the course was ended, one of their number 
affirms that they all found themselves decided and 
intelligent Congregationalists. (Memoirs, p. 228.) 
This was a marked degree of success. Few men are 
to be found who had a surer command of the arts of 
proselytizing than Mr. Ewing. 

Yet there were reasons why Eobert Haldane 
should not be highly elated by the triumphs of his 
subordinate. Mr. Ewing was much addicted to the 
writings of Glas and Sandeman ; but at this particu- 



THE HALDANEAN8. 41 

lar period of his career Mr. Haldane was less favorably- 
inclined towards those theologians than he sub- 
sequently came to be, through the unhappy influence 
of Dr. Stuart upon the mind of James A. Haldane. 
Accordingly, when Ewing put the books that have 
been referred to in the hands of the students (Facts 
and Documents, as above, p. 79, cf. p. 82),, Mr. 
Haldane considered he was entitled to interpose, 
which step he took immediately, while Ewing and 
the students were still in the city of Edinburgh. 
(Facts and Documents, pp. 134, 135.) This must 
have been the beginning of the troubles which for 
so many years wasted the strength and spirits of 
the two men, and ultimately brought calamities on 
the cause they had engaged to promote. 

When his attention was first directed to the 
danger that existed in Edinburgh, Robert Haldane 
assumed a wise position. If he had but pressed 
forward vigorously in the sentiments which he then 
entertained, he might have rescued his interests from 
ruin. He was opposed even to the notions of Church 
order inculcated by Glas and Sandeman, as well as 
to their "ancient gospel" (Facts and Documents, 
pp. 134, 135) ; but on this side of the subject his 
sentiments later underwent an unhappy modification 
(Facts and Documents, p. 81), and he embraced 
with decision, and in some cases with passion, a 
great many items of the desolating scheme of the 
Sandemanians. 

There was a curious play of cross purposes in this 



42 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

business. After the unpleasantness which occurred 
at Edinburgh, Mr. Ewing seemed to consider it the 
main concern of his existence to find a place in every 
question which should be on the opposite side from 
that which Robert Haldane Avas led to assume. 
Therefore, at the moment when Haldane in his turn 
began to dabble considerably in the " ancient order 
of things," Ewing was beginning to insist on occupy- 
ing the old ground. Yet, notwithstanding all the 
counsel which he had brought himself to accept from 
Glas and Sandeman in the details of Church order, 
Robert Haldane could never prevail upon himself to 
receive as true what they had inculcated regarding 
the nature of saving faith. Observing this pecul- 
iarity, Ewing, always in the opposition, became more 
♦and more attached to the Sandemanian notion that 
faith is nothing else than bare belief. 

According to the legally formulated terms of an 
arrangement that had been fixed upon already before 
he was given charge of the students, Ewing removed 
to Glasgow at Whitsunday 1799, to take the pastoral 
oversight of a church which he was expected to 
organize in the Circus, a large building there which 
Robert Haldane had recently purchased for three 
thousand pounds, and fitted up for the purpose of 
religious worship. The seminary was also removed 
Avith him. Confidence between the two men being 
now to a large extent destroyed, it was the earnest 
desire of Ewing to become entirely independent of 
Mr. Haldane (Facts and Documents, p. 24), by 



THE HALBANEANS. 43 

securing the Circus building for himself and for the 
people who should join his society. He hoped to 
effect this purpose by inducing Haldane to make 
over the house to his people in the way of a gift; 
but the latter was not in the least disposed to accede 
to that proposal. Ewing persisted for a number of 
years, always becoming more and more imbittered 
and unreasonable, until at last both parties appeared 
before the public in volumes of abusive charges di- 
rected against each other. But the differefice is 
believed to have started from nothing else than a 
contrariety of opinions regarding the merits of the 
Sandemanians. Except for this issue the two might 
have passed their whole lives without a word of 
conflict. 

Not in the least willing to respect the wishes of 
Haldane, Mr. Ewing, after his removal to the West, 
still kept the writings of Glas and Sandeman prom- 
inently before his students. Robert Haldane was 
much chafed by that usage. When James A. 
Haldane Avent to Dumfries in the summer of the 
year 1801, being now at a distance from Edinburgh 
and from his brother, he wrote Ewing a letter which 
had possibly been suggested before he left home, 
warning him against the retention of these books in 
the seminary, and complaining of his enthusiastic 
manner of speaking of those frigid and bitter theo- 
logians. (Memoirs, pp. 321, 322.) This resource, 
which was perhaps immediately suspected, did not in 
the least avail: Ewing kept on his way. At last, 



44 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

in the year 1802, hopeless of his ability to reduce 
him to terms by any other means, Robert Haldane 
incontinently removed the seminary from Glasgow 
back to Edinburgh, and placed it in other hands. 
(Memoirs, pp. 299, 300.) When the institution was 
opened in the latter place, Mr. Haldane not only 
forbade the books of Glas and Sandeman in the 
library, but laid upon the students an express pro- 
hibition against reading them anywhere else. (Facts 
and Documents, p. 82.) 

But the time was far past for such precautions. 
Sandeman ian principles were already too deeply es- 
tablished in the minds of his people, to admit of their 
successful eviction by that or by any other method. 
Dr. Stuart, especially, was whispering them into the 
ear of James A. Haldane in two or three private 
interviews every week ; and Robert Haldane himself 
appears after a few years, through the influence of 
his brother, to perform the role of an exceedingly 
tenacious stickler for some of the most fantastic fea- 
tures of the " ancient order of things." (Facts and 
Documents, pp. 93-95 ; Memoirs, pp. 322-327.) In 
this regard he outstripped Mr. Ewing by many de- 
grees, and sometimes sorely harassed the consciences 
of his adherents; but in regard to the nature of 
faith, Ewing was much in the lead of both the 
brothers. 

When, in the summer of the year 1800, Mr. Ewing 
at length, on the occasion of a temporary truce with 
Haldane (Facts and Documents, pp. 58-64), got the 



THE HALDANEANS. 45 

consent of his mind to organize a church among the 
people who attended upon his ministry at Glasgow, 
he issued a handbill for the instruction of his con- 
gregation and of the public, entitled " Regulations of 
the Church, Jamaica Street," in which were included 
two items of the "ancient order;" namely, the mutual 
exhortation of the members of the Church, and the 
weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper. With re- 
gard to the former of these, however, the document 
seems to indicate that it was to be held not on Sun- 
day, but upon some other day of the week. It is 
also strict to insist upon what must have been a 
highly necessary provision: "that no personal re- 
marks, or injurious reports respecting character, 
were to be allowed in the Church." (Facts and 
Documents, pp. 64, 65.) 

The custom of " mutual exhortation," the absence 
of which from the Scottish Kirk had given him an 
amount of uneasiness, had likewise been duly intro- 
duced by Mr. Ewing into the constitution of the 
Edinburgh society in December 1798. (Address by 
James A. Haldane to the Church of Christ, Leith 
Walk, Edinburgh. Edinburgh 1808, p. 11. This 
address is bound up at the back of Mr. Haldane's 
volume entitled "A View of the Social Worship 
and Ordinances of the First Christians," Edinburgh 
1806.) But the Church in Edinburgh gave no prac- 
tical heed to that portion of their ecclesiastical chart 
i^^ntil a later period, when the practice was inaugu- 
rated with a degree of success that was disgusting 



46 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

even to such a standi advocate of " primitive Chris- 
tianity " as Dr. Stuart himself, (Memoirs, p. 340.) 
On the other hand, the custom of weekly communion 
was not introduced by Mr. Ewing, at the outset, into 
the constitution which he had drawn up for the use 
of the Edinburgh society, since it was for several 
years the habit of that body to celebrate the Lord's 
Supper only once in the month. (Facts and Docu- 
ments, p. 129.) When, however, the improved ex- 
ample of the Glasgow Church became known to the 
disciples in Edinburgh, they likewise soon began to 
break the loaf every Sunday. 

But the Haldanes were not prepared to stop at this 
point. James Haldane, being constantly in receipt of 
new light from Dr. Stuart and other Sandemanian 
sources, could not abide that his brilliancy should 
be concealed under a bushel. Accordingly, in the 
j^ear 1805, he sent forth the first edition of his 
'' View of the Social Worship and Ordinances," the 
second edition of which has just been cited above. > 
There it is evident that he had made decided prog- 
ress in the lore of the Sandemanians. Their dialect 
is in very fine flow upon his pen. He stands forth 
like a man for the "express precept or approved 
precedent," about which Thomas Campbell was to 
speak with so much pathos a few years later in the 
wilds of Pennsylvania. There should be no creed 
nor confession of faith but the Scriptures. Here 
was the first distinct demand for a presbytery with 
a plurality of elders, that had been openly uttered 



THE HALBANEANS. 47 

ill the Haldanean connection. The collection that 
was always customary at the Lord's Supper now 
became designated as "the fellowship," after the 
best approved Sandemanian fashion. 

But what gave Mr. Ewing particular offence was 
the circumstance that " mutual exhortation," which he 
had confined to Wednesday evening, was raised by 
Haldane to the dignity of a divine ordinance, and 
assigned to a place among the regular Sunday ob- 
servances of the congregation. Thereupon he began 
to draw back, and went so far the other way, that, in 
the end, he was seriously accused of entirely desert- 
ing his darling innovation. (Facts and Documents, 
pp. 126-129.) Matters finally got to such a pass 
that apparently almost the only principle upon which 
the two parties were heartily at one related to the 
rejection of creeds. Though they were daily plead- 
ing for a union on the Bible, by some kind of means 
they were daily receding farther from each other, 
while each faction was accusing the other of a passion 
for change. 

Unhappily for all concerned, Robert Haldane was 
too much impressed by a sense of the correctness and 
importance of the Sandemanian notions that had 
been propounded in his brother's recent publication. 
James had not expected or desired to produce any 
immediate results beyond "inciting his brethren in 
Christ to study the Scriptures on this and every other 
subject, and to appeal only to the law and to the 
testimony." (Preface, p. vii.) But shortly after the 



48 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

book left the press in June 1805, Robert Haldane 
and Mr. Ballantyne were on a visit to England; and, 
stopping on their way at Newcastle, they remained 
for some time practising the views of social worship 
that were developed in it. (Memoirs, p. 324.) Their 
conduct in this regard gave much offence. (Memoirs, 
p. 327.) Ballantyne and Haldane, while not exclud- 
ing those who were not of their own party, publicly 
exhorted one another in the forenoons, and mutually 
dispensed the Lord's Supper, without directing their 
remarks in the least to the audience who had as- 
sembled for worship, while in the afternoons and 
evenings they preached to the multitudes as usual. 
(Facts and Documents, p. 248.) 

No person was bold enough to express the dissat- 
isfaction which many felt against the conduct of the 
Haldanes, until the year 1807, when Ballantyne issued 
a " Treatise on the Elder's Office," in which the posi- 
tion of James Haldane and the Sandemanians was 
duly enforced regarding the necessity of a plurality 
of these functionaries to the existence of a gospel 
Church. There is rarely any thing sadder to witness 
than the spectacle of Robert Haldane, unquestionably 
a splendid mind and spirit, leading the way in the 
puerile figures of the dance which John Glas had in- 
structed his own followers. Mr. Haldane became, in 
an offensive sense, responsible for the work of Bal- 
lantyne (Facts and Documents, pp. 97, 98), doing 
every thing that lay in his power to give it counte- 
nance and circulation. 



THE BALBANEANS. 49 

In answer to the challenge which he conceived had 
by this means been laid upon his own wing of the 
party, Mr. Ewing forthwith prepared and published 
an "Attempt towards a Statement of the Doctrine of 
Scripture on some disputed points respecting the 
Constitution, Government, Worship, and Discipline 
of the Church of Christ," Glasgow 1808. The breach 
between the factions was now first made public : it had 
long been incurable. The party of Ewing, which, 
perhaps, was numerically the smaller, became hence- 
forth practically isolated ; but their sentiments on the 
subjects of faith, infant-baptism, the mode of baptism, 
the duty of weekly communion and of mutual exhor- 
tation, placed them in closer sympathy and relations 
with the Sandemanians of the aspersion observance. 
On the other hand, the Haldanes were now be- 
come, in a measure, reckless. In order that the 
Edinburgh Church might conform to the apostolic 
model in the matter of a plurality of elders, Robert 
was speedily ordained to occupy a place by the side 
of James Alexander in that function. (Memoirs, p. 
341.) 

Possibly it was not without reference to the cir- 
cumstance that Mr. Ewing was leaning far to the 
side of the Sandemanian Independents, that James 
Haldane now began to turn towards the ''Scotch 
Baptists." The patient labors of Charles Stuart 
were about to be crowned with success. This con- 
summation was promoted by the action of Mr. John 
Campbell, a beloved associate of the Haldanes, who 



60 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST, 

had gone over to the " Scotch Baptist " fraternity as 
early as the year 1803, since which time he had been 
pastor of a church at Kingsland, near London. 
(Memoirs, p. 297.) In a letter to this gentleman 
under date of Feb. 19, 1808, Haldane expresses 
strong scruples regarding the propriety of infant- 
baptism. (Memoirs, p. 325.) The 21st of April, 
1808, was the date of another communication which 
announced that he had been immersed. (Memoirs, 
p. 325.) In a few months Robert also followed his 
brother in these changes. 

This action did not result in any kind of organic 
union between the Haldaneans and the party that 
was led by Mr. Archibald McLean, but it was not 
many weeks until it had produced a hopeless dis- 
ruption of the Edinburgh Church and of the entire 
Haldanean body. The enterprise which started 
forth with so much promise was brought to hopeless 
desolation. There has been scarcely anywhere in 
modern Church history a more lame and impotent 
conclusion. 

The Sandemanians had ruined the cause and 
Church of the Haldanes. 



ME. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 61 



CHAPTER VL 

MR. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION TO SANDEMANIANISM. 

(First Stage.^ 

It was not easy to follow in detail the process of 
Mr. Campbell's perversion to Sandemanian views, 
until the publication of his biography by Professor 
Robert Richardson, an early disciple and for many 
years a bosom friend of the most prominent advo- 
cate of Sandemanianism in America. Though we 
are indebted to his "Memoirs of Alexander Camp- 
bell," Philadelphia 1868, for a considerable amount 
and variety of information regarding the early years 
of his master, there are still certain points of inquiry 
where he unhappily leaves us in the lurch. But the 
occasions for complaint are less numerous than the 
reasons for gratitude. The account which is here 
given is based almost entirely upon the representa- 
tions made by Professor Richardson. 

Alexander Campbell was born near Ballymena, 
County Antrim, Ireland, on the 12th of September, 
1788. (Memoirs, as above, vol. i. p. 19.) His father, 
Thomas Campbell, was a Seceder minister of the 
Anti-Burgher branch (vol. i. p. 25), and lived in 



- 62 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, 

quite humble circumstances. After suffering the ills 
of a probationer's existence for about ten years, his 
patience was at length rewarded by the pastoral 
charge of a new church at Ahorey, near Armagh 
(vol. i. pp. 29, 30). With the hope of eking out an 
insufficient salary, the young pastor took a farm near 
the village of Rich Hill, where he fixed his residence 
(vol. i. p. 30). The farm proving a failure, he 
went back to his early occupation of teaching school 
(vol. i. p. 47), removing for this purpose into the 
village. As his family increased in number, the 
individual advantages of the several children were in 
a corresponding degree curtailed. Alexander got 
what education he might at hap-hazard (vol. i. pp. 
31-35, 48) ; but for several years, owing to the loss 
of most of his studious inclinations, his powers went 
to waste. At length his attention was directed to 
the importance of cultivation, and he set about the 
business of self-education (vol. i. p. 76), but with 
no unusual amount of success. Most of the time 
was passed in the capacity of an assistant in his 
father's school at Rich Hill, or in the performance of 
similar labors at the school of one of his uncles at 
Newry (vol. i. p. 88). 

The circumstances of the family became at length 
so much straitened that they began to turn their eyes 
to the United States for " deliverance " (vol. i. pp.. 
80, 81, 86). The father preceded the balance of the 
household, setting sail from Londonderry on the 8th 
of April, 1807 (vol. i. p. 81). In the course of time 



MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVERSION. 63 ■ 

he was enabled to provide means for their passage ; 
and they took ship to follow him, on the 1st of 
October, 1808 (vol. i. p. 95). The funds for this 
purpose were likely procured by means of public 
contributions obtained from the different Presby- 
terian Churches of Western Pennsylvania. (Debate 
on Campbellism, between Alexander Campbell and 
Obadiah Jennings, Pittsburg 1832, pp. 246, 24T; 
compare Richardson, vol. i. pp. 306, 307.) 

Six days after their embarkation, the family were 
wrecked on the island of Islay on the coast of Scot- 
land. Mrs. Campbell, his mother, being unwilling to 
intrust herself to the hazards of an ocean voyage in 
the winter season of the year, and Alexander being 
naturally desirous to repair in some measure the 
defects of his early education, it was arranged that 
they should pass the time until the approaching 
spring should open upon them, at Glasgow, where he 
might employ his leisure in attending the university. 
Meanwhile Thomas Campbell was actively engaged 
at his home in Washington County, Penn., in trying 
to relieve their distresses, and, in due time, to procure 
their transfer to the country of his adoption. 

Already in their home at Rich Hill, Ireland, they 
had become familiar with the Scottish Independents. 
A somewhat flourishing Church of the Glasites, or 
Sandemanians of the aspersion observance, existed 
there (vol. i. pp. 60, 82). Professor Richardson 
admits (vol. i. p. 59) that "the Independents exerted 
a most important influence upon the religious views 



54 TEE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

of both Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander ; " 
but this influence did not become apparent during 
the period of their residence at Rich Hill. The 
former, it is true, had much pleasure in attending 
the religious services of the Sandemanian Church; 
but he was all the while in the full odor of Seceder 
orthodoxy, and it is not likely that he would ever 
have forsaken his own people but for the somewhat 
extraordinary experiences that he was now called 
to encounter. Even the membership he held in the 
Haldanean "Society for Propagating the Gospel at 
Home " (vol. i. p. 73) does not necessarily signify any 
lack of devotion to his lifelong connections in the 
Presbyterian body. Many persons in various por- 
tions of the country had yielded to the eloquent and 
impassioned solicitations of James A. Haldane so far 
as to pergiit themselves to be enrolled in that organi- 
zation, who had no thought or wish to be known as 
followers of the Haldanes. 

The only perceptible influence exerted by the 
Sandemanians of Rich Hill upon the Presbyterian 
pastor of the place may be observed in the fact that 
he is reported to have made an overture either before 
the Presbytery of Market Hill or the Synod of Ire- 
land, " in favor of a more frequent celebration of the 
Lord's Supper" (vol. i. p. 69) ; but it is not stated 
that he was bold enough to advocate a weekly observ- 
ance. For the rest, he must have been at this time 
almost unaffected by the ordinary Sandemanian con- 
siderations in favor of the "mutual exhortation" of 



MB, CAMPBELL' S PEBVEBSION. 65 

churcli-members, or of the various other preposterous 
imitations of Christ that were peculiar to the people 
in question. In brief, Alexander is believed to have 
been the leader in the unhappy progress that was 
later made by both father and son in the direction of 
the Independents. 

When they were wrecked on the island of Islay, 
one of the most influential persons with whom Alex- 
ander became acquainted was Mr. George Fulton, 
who, in addition to his duties as pedagogue for the 
community, also stood at the head of a Sunday school, 
— probably one of those which James A. Haldane 
and his co-laborer John Campbell had established 
during their famous visit to Greenock and other com- 
munities in the West of Scotland for that purpose, in 
the year 1797 (vol. i. p. 159). He was at pains 
to visit the Sunday school of Mr. Fulton (vol. i. p. 
108), — an act which must have won the favorable 
regards of that excellent person, for,- when Alexander 
left the place for his sojourn in Glasgow, he was the 
bearer of a letter of introduction from Fulton to Mr. 
Greville Ewing (vol. i. p. 114). 

His arrival in Glasgow occurred on the afternoon 
of the 3d of November 1808. Although he had been 
thoughtful enough to procure letters of introduction 
to several persons in the city (vol. i. pp. 114, 115), it 
somehow befell that the letter to Mr. Ewing was 
the first which he was minded to present (vol. i. p. 
128). It secured him a night's lodging, and per- 
haps a large amount of well-deserved sympathj^ 



56 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

The next morning, having been informed that he 
was of the Seceder persuasion, Mr. Ewing gave him 
a note to the Rev. John Mitchel (vol. i. p. 128), who, 
it is believed, was one of the two ministers of that 
order in Glasgow, Mr. Moutre being the other. 
(Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell, by Alexander 
Campbell, of Bethany, Va., Cincinnati 1861, p. 117.) 
Mr. Mitchel was attentive enough to render him 
some degree of assistance in finding lodgings, per- 
haps in the house of one of his Seceder parishioners. 
(Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. i. p. 128.) 

But by some means Alexander seems to have al- 
ready acquired a kind of distaste for the Seceders. 
The lodging which Mr. Mitchel had procured for the 
family was speedily concluded to be incommodious, 
and must needs be replaced by another of Mr. 
Ewing's selection, which was likely in the home of one 
of the members of his own church (vol. i. p. 130). 
This may appear to be a trivial circumstance ; but 
when we are reminded what an important effect the 
influence of Ewing produced upon the fortunes of 
the Campbell family, no transaction that fell out 
between them can wisely be overlooked. From this 
time Mr. Ewing was the chief counsellor of the 
household, and his praises were on the tongue of 
every member of it (vol. i. pp. 148, 149). 

He was always ready to employ his good offices 
in their service. Through his courtesy Alexander 
was carried about and introduced to each of the 
professors of the university (vol. i. p. 130). It was 



MR, CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 67 

likewise, perhaps, by his assistance, that Alexander 
was enabled to make up those classes in the rudi- 
mentary branches which he taught in private for 
the purpose of improving the narrow finances of the 
family (vol. i. p. 139), and by means of which it 
must have been rendered nearly impossible that he 
should make any solid progress in his own studies ; 
a serious misfortune in view of the fact, that, by reason 
of the sad necessities of the situation, his early edu- 
cation had been left incomplete- At every point the 
toils of the excellent and plausible Ewing encircled 
the ingenuous and inexperienced boy. He was fre- 
quently invited to the house of Ewing in order to take 
dinner or tea (vol. i. p. 149) ; before the winter was 
past, the disciple of Glas found himself on a decid- 
edly intimate footing with the son of the Irish Seceder 
pastor (vol. i. pp. 148, 149). Alexander had obtained 
a great impression of the learning and piety of his 
new friend (vol. i. p. 187), and was soon as pliable 
under Ewing's manipulations as clay in the hands of 
the potter. Professor Richardson truly says (vol. i. 
p. 148), that his "stay at Glasgow was destined to 
work an entire change in the views and feelings of 
Alexander in respect to the existing denominations, 
and to disengage his sympathies entirely from the 
Seceder denomination, and every other form of Pres- 
byterianism." He is likewise correct in the admis- 
sion that " the change seems to have been occasioned 
chiefly through his intimacy with Greville Ewing." 
Moreover, Ewing was esteemed " a very fine lecturer, 



58 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

and very popular both as a man and as a preacher, 
as was also Mr. Wardlaw, who frequently officiated." 
With Mr. Moutre, the pastor of the Seceder Church 
where his mother and the family attended worship, 
Alexander would naturally have small sympathy; 
and before the close of the winter his private note- 
books exhibited various evidences of his impatience 
(vol. i. p. 187). 

It is not necessary to set down in further detail the 
features of this old and vulgar story, which has been 
enacted a thousand times before and since in many 
parts of the earth. It will be sufficient to call atten- 
tion to the conclusion of it as recorded by the biogra- 
pher of Mr. Campbell. Professor Richardson relates, 
that Alexander ''became gradually more and more 
favorable to the principles of Congregationalism 
entertained by Mr. Ewing, which secured an entire 
emancipation from the control of domineering Synods 
and General Assemblies, 'and which seemed to him 
much more accordant with primitive usage. At the 
same time, he did not feel himself at liberty rashly 
to abandon the cherished religious sentiments of his 
youth, and the Seceder Church to which his father 
and the family belonged, and in which he thought it 
his duty to be a regular communicant. 

He was in this unsettled state of mind as the 
semi-annual communion season of the Seceders ap- 
proached, and his doubts in regard to the character 
of such religious establishments occasioned him no 
little anxiety of mind concerning the proper course 



MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 69 

for him to pursue. His conscientious misgivings as 
to the propriety of sanctioning any longer, by parti- 
cipation, a religious system which he disapproved ; 
and, on the other hand, his sincere desire to comply 
with all his religious obligations, — created a serious 
conflict in his mind, from which he found it impossi- 
ble to escape. At the time of preparation, however, 
he concluded that he would be in the way of his 
duty, at least, and that he would go to the elders 
and get a metallic token, which every one who 
wished to communicate had to obtain, and that he 
would use it or not, afterward, as was sometimes 
done. The elders asked for his credentials as a 
member of the Secession Church ; and he informed 
them that his membership was in the Church in 
Ireland, and that he had no letter. They replied 
that in that case it would be necessary for him to 
appear before the Session and to be examined. He 
accordingly appeared before them, and, being ex- 
amined, received the token. The hour at which the 
Lord's Supper was to take place found him still 
undecided ; and, as there were about eight hundred 
communicants, and some eight or nine tables to be 
served in succession, he concluded to wait until the 
last table, in hopes of being able to overcome his 
scruples. Failing in this, however, and unable any 
longer to recognize the Seceder Church as the 
Church of Christ, he threw his token upon the plate 
handed round, and, when the elements were passed 
along the table, declined to partake with the rest. 



60 THE DISCIPLES OF CUEIST. 

It was at this moment that the struggle in his mind 
was completed; and the ring of the token falling 
upon the plate, announced the instant at which he 
renounced Presbyterianism forever, — the leaden 
voucher becoming thus a token, not of communion, 
but of separation." (Richardson, Memoirs of Alex- 
ander Campbell, vol. i. pp. 189, 190.) 

In brief words, the conquest of Greville Ewing 
and of his particular type of Sandemanianism was 
then first firmly established. Though he had entered 
Scotland comparatively innocent of these vagaries, 
Alexander turned away from the country at the end 
of three hundred days (vol. i. p. 194), in a state of 
more or less abject slavery to them. With this view 
his own statement, made some years later in the 
pages of the paper which he edited in Virginia, is in 
agreement, where in speaking of the confirmed dis- 
gust he felt against the '' popular schemes " he adds, 
''which I confess I principally imbibed when a student 
at the University of Glasgow." (C.B., edit. 6, p. 72.) 

Let the fact be likewise considered, that Alexan- 
der entered Glasgow on the 3d of November, 1808, 
which left a period of not quite seven full months 
since the time when James A. Haldane had given 
such dire offence to Ewing and Wardlaw and the 
men of that faction, by submitting to the rite of 
immersion without waiting for their initiative. The 
circles in which he was received were by conse- 
quence very full of opposition to the course of the 
Haldanes in drawing near to the immersed wing of 



ME, CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 61 

the Sandemanian fraternity. It is likely that Mr. 
Ewing and the church over which he presided had 
already taken the remarkable step by which they 
" refused to have visible communion with those who 
adhered to the Haldanes " (vol. i. p. 181). Alex- 
ander was, therefore, in no situation to hear the 
Haldane side of the controversy, and in no state of 
mind to do the Haldanes justice in case he had been 
permitted to hear it. 

Accordingly it is perfectly natural that he should 
be inclined to favor the cause of the Sandemanians 
of the aspersion observance ; and there is no good 
reason why Professor Richardson should find it 
somewhat singular, that during his residence in Glas- 
gow none of the questions connected with infant- 
baptism and immersion engaged Mr. Campbell's 
attention in the least (vol. i. pp. 186, 187). Ewing 
and his co-adjutor Wardlaw were both of them at 
the moment vehemently exercising themselves in 
opposition to immersion and to the baptism of 
adults only (vol. i. p. 187). Alexander could have 
heard scarcely any thing else than arguments in 
favor of infant-baptism and aspersion, at such times 
as he was admitted to a place at their tables. These 
disquisitions would naturally fall in with his pre- 
vious convictions regarding those topics. He had 
not yet enjoyed an occasion to become intimately 
acquainted with the immersion wing of the Sande- 
manian body. 



62 THE DISCIPLES OF CHEIST. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ME. Campbell's eaeliest success as a 

PROPAGANDIST. 

Professoe Richardson has, unhappily, left in a 
state of incompleteness that portion of his volumes 
which relates to the perversion to Sandemanian views 
of Thomas Campbell, the father of Alexander. It is 
very natural that he should be inclined to do as much 
honor as possible to the father of his hero ; but in 
accomplishing this purpose he is suspected to have 
been, in some degree, unfaithful to the facts of 
history. 

His readers must present their acknowledgments 
to the excellent author for the care he has often 
exhibited in permitting his characters to address the 
public in their own persons. Alexander Campbell 
seems to have been one of that kind of men who 
rarely ever lose a letter, whether the same were re- 
ceived or sent by him. Much of his early epistolary 
correspondence was strictly copied down in note- 
books that he kept for the purpose of preserving 
documents that were of any sort of interest. A* libe- 
ral share of the letters which passed between himself 
and his father, Thomas Campbell, have been repro- 



ME. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 63 

duced in the pages of the biographer ; but, singularly- 
enough, not one of those is published which belongs 
to the time of Alexander's sojourn in Glasgov/. This 
defect is to be regretted, since, if it were supplied, 
some light might fall from that source on the course 
of Thomas Campbell's proceedings during the same 
season in Pennsylvania. 

In the narrative of Professor Richardson it is 
represented that Thomas Campbell had reached a 
position substantially like that to which Greville 
Ewing had brought his son, by means of his own 
private reflections and experiences, without any refer- 
ence to communications that he might have received 
from Alexander while the latter was detained in Glas- 
gow (Memoirs, vol. i. p. 220) ; but this conclusion is, 
for several reasons, inadmissible. Every thing, for ex- 
ample, that is reported of Thomas Campbell, whether 
in the volume which contains his own Memoirs 
(Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell, by Alexander 
Campbell of Bethany, Va., Cincinnati, 1861), or 
in the biography which Professor Richardson has 
supplied of his son Alexander, goes to show that he 
was a timid, inefficient person. There are no certain 
proofs that he was capable of independent thought or 
action, either at this or any other period of his life. 
The facts and instances which might serve to estab- 
lish the propriety of this judgment regarding him are 
too numerous and circumstantial to be repeated here, 
but it would not be difficult to supply them on 
demand. 



64 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

Moreover, it is not to be supposed that Thomas 
Campbell, in Pennsylvania, was kept in ignorance of 
the experiences of his family in Glasgow, nor of the 
kindness of Greville Ewing towards them, especially 
as every member of the household was glad to ac- 
knowledge the extent of their obligations to him. 
(Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. i. p. 149.) 
The heart of the good and weak man would naturally 
be moved Avith gratitude towards the distant bene- 
factor, and there would be no just bounds to his 
admiration for the greatness and power and conde- 
scension of the noble Sandemanian. Comparisons 
would easily be drawn between the kindness and 
attentions of Mr. Ewing, and the relative coldness 
and neglect of the Seceder minister, Mr. Moutre ; and 
there would be no very careful reflections upon the 
circumstance that the distant bearing of his ministe- 
rial colleague might be due to the passion which his 
own loved ones had conceived for a disagreeable rival. 

Again, it is entirely possible that Alexander was 
not slow to communicate the points of that inti- 
mate knowledge of Mr. Ewing's previous religious 
history which he had been enabled to acquire in the 
progress of his exceptionally friendly intercourse with 
him (vol. i. p. 149). By means of this kind, Thomas 
Campbell, who, perhaps, was already in subjection to 
the imperious will of his son, would be placed in 
possession of several items of news that were highly 
acceptable to a husband and father in his own unfor- 
tunate situation. 



MB. CAMPBELL AS A PBOPAGANDIST. 65 

By degrees, as Alexander found himself ''grad- 
ually becoming more and more favorable to the 
principles of Congregationalism entertained by Mr. 
Ewing" (vol. i. p. 189), various considerations in 
support of these would be included in his epistolary 
communications with his absent parent. These sug- 
gestions would each of them fall upon a mind and 
heart which had been prepared to receive them with 
cordiality. The father, in his rather exceptional 
weakness of character, would perceive that himself 
also sympathized with Alexander's distaste for the 
people among whom he was brought up, and 
with whom his fortunes had been the reverse of 
flourishing. 

Under circumstances of this kind, it is not a 
matter of surprise, — it is only what might be rea- 
sonabl}^ anticipated, — that Thomas Campbell should 
become involved in a controversy with the Seceders 
of the vicinity where he kept his residence. In the 
spring of the year 1809, while his family were still 
in Glasgow, a libel was laid against him in the Pres- 
bytery of Chartiers, '' containing various formal and 
specified charges, the chief of which were, that he 
had failed to inculcate strict adherence to the Church 
standard and usages, and had even expressed his dis- 
approval of some things in said standard, and of the 
uses made of them " (vol. i. p. 225). The case was 
appealed to the Associate Synod of North America, 
which convened in the fall of the year 1809. From 
the letter of protest that was addressed by Mr. Camp- 



66 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

bell at the time to this body (Memoirs of Thomas 
Campbell, by Alexander Campbell, pp. 12-16), it 
may be gathered that the objections urged against 
him related to the usual Sandemanian scruples con- 
cerning the impropriety of any human standards of 
belief, and to his advocacy of the customary Sande- 
manian position that the Scriptures are the only 
admissible standard, to the exclusion of all kinds of 
creeds and confessions of faith. Here was the 
earliest, if not the most brilliant, conquest which 
Alexander was enabled to make on behalf of San- 
demanianism. 

It is possible that the troubles which arose in 
the Presbytery of Chartiers were duly reported to the 
family, who were then abiding in Glasgow. Tidings 
of these occurrences may have reached their ears 
before the communion season already mentioned, at 
which Alexander was successful in making up his 
mind no longer to recognize the Seceder Church as 
the Church of Christ (vol. i. p. 190). Although 
his case was pending before the Synod, Mr. Camp- 
bell did not leave off proclaiming the Sandemanian 
notions which had just met with decided opposition 
in the Presbytery. The churches of his Seceder 
brethren, it would appear, were promptly closed 
against his access; but he found accommodation for 
the people who were disposed to give heed to him, 
in the private houses of various persons who might 
be inclined to show him that favor (vol. i. p. 231). 
In this labor of making propaganda for his new 



ME. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 67 

principles, he received especial support from certain 
members of the Sandemanian Church in Rich Hill, 
Ireland, who had emigrated to America but a fort- 
night after he himself had come over (vol. i. pp. 
81-83). Regarding one of these, who was the pre- 
centor of the Church, Professor Richardson truly 
says (vol. i. p. 82), " This James Foster was destined 
to take no unimportant part in Thomas Campbell's 
future religious movements." In fact, he was the 
faithful and efficient ally of Alexander in the 
efforts he made to draw his father away from his 
former allegiance to Presbyterian doctrines and 
polity. 

Before the summer of 1809 was half closed, Thomas 
Campbell was engaged in meditating a scheme by 
which it might be in his power to put his new-found 
notions into practice. He proposed to his followers 
the propriety of holding a meeting for the purpose 
of imparting greater definiteness to the movement 
in which they were embarked. Perhaps it was 
some time during the month of Mayor June that 
one such was appointed at the house of Abraham 
Altars, one of his more subservient adherents (vol. i. 
p. 231). 

When that meeting had been duly convened and 
addressed, Mr. Campbell proposed, as a basis for 
all further action, the motto : " Where the Scriptures 
speak, we speak ; where they are silent, we are silent." 
Here was, beyond dispute, an excellent ideal ; but, 
in point of fact, it could hardly ever amount to any 



68 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

thing more than an ideal. Neither Thomas Campbell, 
nor Alexander, nor any of their supporters has ever 
possessed wit enough to give effect to it by mak- 
ing out just where the Scriptures do speak. Great 
abuses once prevailed among them in that regard, 
which Alexander attempted to regulate by composing 
and publishing a fourth-rate treatise on the subject 
of Biblical Interpretation. Nothing was clearer than 
that the Campbells were hopeless failures in the de- 
partment of exegesis, as most of their people have 
been ; at any rate, they could lay no sort of claim to 
infallibility. Consequently it was impossible for them 
to apply their watchword to any advantage. What 
is the profit of professing to speak where the Scrip- 
tures speak, without more power than these gentle- 
men had to determine where the Scriptures speak or 
where they are silent ? 

However, the above motto was a neat and popu- 
lar expression of the fundamental principle of Mr. 
Greville Ewing. (Facts and Documents, pp. 124, 
130.) It is likewise nothing more than is professed 
in fact, if not in form, by every sect of religious 
worshippers in Christendom. Mr. Ewing and Mr. 
Haldane had both adhered to this motto with all the 
skill and devotion they could command, but with the 
sad result of perceiving, that, instead of the excellent 
Christian union which they so ardently desired, they 
were daily drifting farther apart. Ewing even felt 
himself constrained to deny any visible fellowship 
with the sometime friend and associate to whom he 



MB. CAMPBELL AS A PBOPAGANDIST. 69 

was under the deepest obligations for kindness be- 
stowed. Nevertheless, he had not lost any portion 
of his faith in this watchword, believing that there 
was virtue in it to charm every discord that might 
arise in the Christian world. It is likely, that, in the 
mouth of Thomas Campbell, it signified nothing more 
important than, " Where Mr. Ewing speaks, we speak ; 
and where he is silent, we are silent." 

Whether the father or the son should be awarded 
the credit of imparting this taking expression to the 
leading principle of Ewing, is an inquiry that may 
not be easily determined. It is not unlikely that the 
first meeting and its incidents were duly and minutely 
reported to Alexander beyond the seas ; he may have 
had knowledge of the whole business before he set 
sail for America on the 3d of August 1809. The 
chief result of this preliminary meeting was not 
enacted until the 17th of August, when Alexander 
was already on the high seas. On that date was 
formed "The Christian Association of Washington," 
which appears to have been modelled in several re- 
spects after the pattern of the Haldanean " Society 
for Propagating the Gospel at Home," of which 
Thomas Campbell was a member during his residence 
in Ireland. 

The first act of this Association was to issue a 
" Declaration and Address," the proofs of which were 
just coming from the press when Alexander arrived 
with the family at Washington, Penn., on the 28th 
of October 1809 (vol. i. p. 246). This document 



70 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

embraced a number of considerations in elucidation 
and advocacy of the principle that the Scriptures 
are in themselves a sufficient guide without the aid 
of any confession of faith or other kind of standard. 
It confined itself to somewhat narrow limits and 
general statements, its author not venturing to step 
beyond the boundaries which had been set for him 
in Scotland, through the example of Mr. Ewing, and 
possibly through the dictation of Alexander. 

In the autumn of the year 1809, his letter of pro- 
test against the censure of the Presbj^tery of Char- 
tiers was brought to the attention of the Associate 
Synod of North America, and along with it a copy 
of the '' Declaration and Address " which in the in- 
terval had been published (vol. i. p. 228). The 
Synod were kindly disposed towards him, and, re- 
versing the action of the Presbytery, directed that 
he should be released from censure. At this point 
the narrative of Professor Richardson is confused and 
indefinite, but it suffices to indicate (vol. i. p. 229) 
that the Presbytery were not content with the ruling 
of the Synod ; and at their next session, perhaps in 
the spring of 1810, instead of dismissing the censure 
they renewed it, and referred the case back to the 
Synod. Thomas Campbell, conscious perhaps that 
his course was reprehensible, and for the moment 
unwilling to be debarred from religious communion, 
submitted to receive this second censure. However, 
instead of quitting his schismatical practices as the 
Presbytery now had a right to expect he would do, 



MR. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 71 

he persevered in them. Justly offended by his con- 
duct, which they perhaps interpreted as a breach 
of faith, the Presbytery placed his movements under 
strict surveillance, with a view to their own protec- 
tion, and in order to establish by undeniable proofs 
the correctness of their judgment against him when 
the Synod should again bring forward the case for 
review and decision. In this latter respect they were 
so far successful that the defendant himself must 
have become aware that it would be useless to 
continue the litigation. Accordingly, before the 
Synod met to consider the questions involved, Mr. 
Campbell found it prudent to hand in a formal re- 
nunciation of its authority, in which he declared 
that he ' should henceforth hold himself " utterly 
unaffected by its decisions " (vol. i. p. 230). These 
occurrences are supposed to belong to the autumn 
of the year 1810. 

About the same time that he was engaged in 
declaring his independence of the Seceders, Thomas 
Campbell is found presenting an overture to the reg- 
ular Presbyterians of the Synod of Pittsburg, pray- 
ing for the reception of the " Christian Association 
of Washington " into their communion. That body 
heard him with respect while he unfolded the beauties 
of Mr. E wing's principle, and then coolly dismissed 
him (vol. i. pp. 327, 328). After this rebuff it 
was soon decided by the Campbells to organize a 
church of their own, a task which was accomplished 
at the regular semi-annual meeting of the Associa- 



72 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

tion, on the 2d of May, 1811 (vol. i. pp. 366-368). 
This church was organized as nearly as might 
be after the fashion of the one over which Greville 
Ewing presided in Glasgow (vol. i. p. 349). It 
had weekly communion (vol. i. p. 373) ; it main- 
tained the biblical propriety of the independent form 
of church government (vol. i. pp. 345, 346, and p. 
349) ; it favored lay preaching in the same way 
Ewing did (vol. i. p. 346) ; it did not adopt the 
notion of a plurality of elders, which Ewing also 
now rejected; and was content with choosing 
Thomas Campbell as elder, although Alexander was 
licensed to preach (vol. i. p. 367). Like Mr. Ewing, 
V both the Campbells were still in favor of infant- 
baptism. 

Nevertheless, out of regard for James Foster, the 
precentor of the Sandemanian Church in Rich Hill, 
who had refused even in Ireland to have his children 
baptized (vol. i. p. 82), they were prevented from 
taking as definite grounds on that subject as their 
Scottish master was in the custom of assuming. 
Thomas Campbell, it would appear, strove hard to 
keep in the steps of Ewing in this quarter ; but it 
was, perhaps, impossible for him to manage Foster. 
The Sandemanian precentor was highly scrupulous, 
and labored much to bring his friend over to his own 
way of thinking (vol. i. p. 240). Under these 
circumstances there was no other resource than to 
make infant-baptism a matter of forbearance (vol. 
i. pp. 325 and 345). Considering the altered cir- 



ME. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 73 

cumstances, this was keeping quite well in the track 
that had been marked out for them. "Mutual 
exhortation " also cut no figure at this moment in the 
Brush Eun Church ; Mr. Ewing, it will be remem- 
bered, had become disgusted with that item of " the 
ancient order of things " before Alexander's arrival 
in Glasgow, and was even charged by the Haldanes 
with turning against it. (Facts and Documents, p. 
126ff.) Alexander was always unfavorable to it 
(vol. ii. p. 128), and opposed his influence when it 
was later introduced at Brush Run. Alexander must 
have frequently heard of the theological classes which 
Ewing was intrusted to teach during the first two 
years of his residence in Glasgow. The suggestion 
was not lost upon him. As early as he could after 
his arrival in Pennsylvania, steps were taken to 
organize a similar class. Its first, and, so far as 
reported, its only students, were James Foster and 
Abraham Altars (vol. i. pp. 277-279). 

There was one single point, however, in which he 
had not yet learned to speak with Ewing. Whether 
that failure is due to the multitude of cares which 
must have beset him as the head of the family in 
Glasgow, robbing him of most of the leisure which 
otherwise he might have devoted to his studies ; or 
whether he had a keener appreciation of matters re- 
lating to the " ancient order " than of such as related 
to the " ancient gospel ; " or whether, in the third 
instance, he experienced a difficulty in the prospect 
of surrendering the view which he had always held 



74 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, 

concerning the nature of saving faith, — must remain, 
for the present, a theme of conjecture. But, whatever 
should be the right explanation of the phenomenon, 
Alexander rejected, for a while, the conceit of Ewing 
and the Sandemanians, that faith is nothing other 
than mere belief, which is produced by testimony 
alone, without reference to the regenerating grace 
of God. On the 7th of April 1811, about twenty 
months after he had left behind him the advantages 
of the personal tutelage of his master, he is still 
found holding fast to the orthodox Seceder convic- 
tions regarding this subject (vol. i. p. 376). 

But the period was near at hand when he should 
accede to the notion of his master touching this point 
also, and, at the same time, go beyond him in other 
respects. The 7th of April 1811, is the latest date 
on which, according to the representations of his 
biographer, he was willing to affirm that faith " is of 
the operation of God, and an effect of almighty 
power and regenerating grace.^^ 

The Brush Run Church which Alexander had suc- 
ceeded in organizing out of the material that com- 
posed the " Christian Association of Washington," 
including his own, embraced the names of twenty- 
eight persons (vol. i. p. 373). These were the first- 
fruits of his labors on behalf of the Sandemanian 
cause. He was untiring in his exertions, both in the 
neighborhood of his residence and elsewhere. On 
the 16th of May, 1811, he undertook his first mission- 
ary journey, which carried him into the State of Ohio, 



MB. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 75 

and gave him a store of experience, but a very slight 
measure of success (vol. i. pp. 370, 371). In August 
he again went forth, and was employed most of the 
time until the close of the year ; but the people were 
nowhere inclined to favor the innovations which he 
had borrowed from Scotland (vol. i. p. 379). 



76 TRE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

MR. Campbell's peryeesion to sandemakiaotsm. 

(^Second Stage.') 

Already in boyhood, during his residence in Ire^ 
land, Alexander had become aware of the existence 
and the tenets of the Sandemanians of the immersion 
obserYance. His biographer is careful to note the 
fact that before the family departed from Rich Hill, 
he had " been much pleased with the works of Arch- 
ibald M'Lean, especially his work on ^ The Commis- 
sion,' of which he was wont ever after to speak in 
the highest terms " (vol. i. p. 71). This inci- 
dent is of importance to the student of his life and 
changes. 

The Brush Run Church does not appear to have 
enjoyed a great degree of harmony of couYiction in 
its efforts to "unite on the Bible." On the third 
day after its organization, a question was raised that 
must have given the members an amount of solici- 
tude. When the Lord's Supper was celebrated for 
the first time on Sunday, the 4th of May 1811, it 
was remarked that three of the members — Joseph 
Bryant, Margaret FuUerton, and Abraham Altars — 



ME. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSIOJSr. 77 

refrained from the elements. Upon inquiry made 
for the reasons which might influence them to pursue 
this course, it was discovered that neither of them 
had ever been baptized after any of the various modes 
in which that ordinance is administered among Chris- 
tian communities (vol. i. pp. 371, 372). 

The difficulty would have been of easy adjustment 
if these parties had been willing to accept baptism 
by affusion. In that instance there would have been 
no kind of obstacle in the way of Thomas Camp- 
bell's speaking where Mr. Ewing spoke. But they 
were unhappily decided in their conviction that the 
" ancient order of things " provided for baptism by 
immersion. Joseph Bryant would likewise appear to 
have taken the lead in making the demand for this 
form of the ordinance (vol. i. p. 372), and he was a 
person whom it was exceedingly desirable to concili- 
ate. Besides the fact that he had rendered most 
efficient service in erecting the house of worship at 
Brush Run (vol. i. p. 322), it may also be mentioned 
that he had been an attentive member of "The 
Christian Association," and perhaps already was rec- 
ognized as an eligible match for Miss Dorothea 
Campbell, to whom he was united in marriage about 
twenty months later, on the 13th of January 1813 
(vol. i. p. 458). It was, therefore, very trying to 
resist Mr. Bryant's conscientious scruples and his 
earnest solicitations. 

On the other hand, Thomas Campbell was loath to 
depart from the platform of Greville Ewing. A dis- 



78 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

cussion of two months' duration was carried on, at 
the end of which Bryant was successful. Mr. 
Campbell immersed him and his two friends on the 
4th of July 1811 (vol. i. p. 372). But this con- 
cession to the wishes of a few did not mend the 
condition of affairs; it only whetted the appetite for 
other changes. James Foster, the Sandemanian pre- 
centor, who witnessed it, was not edified by the man- 
ner in which the ceremony was performed. Instead 
of entering the water along with the subjects, the 
administrator stood on the root of a tree at the side 
of the pool, bending down their heads until they had 
been covered by the water. Furthermore, in order 
to signify the position which he had now brought 
himself to occupy, Foster expressed the opinion that 
it was incongruous for one who had not been bap- 
tized in his own person, to administer the rite to other 
people (vol. i. p. 378). Manifestly it was becom- 
ing daily more impracticable for the Campbells to 
walk in Ewing's way. They must either leave it, or 
submit to witness the Church which they had estab- 
lished at Brush Run go to pieces. An earnest dis- 
cussion had been some time going forward on the 
subject of immersion (vol. i. p. 393), and it was not 
a great while before " many of those connected with 
Thomas Campbell had advanced beyond him." 
They were restrained from carrying out their convic- 
tions, and submitting to this form of the rite, by 
nothing else than " the respect which they felt was 
due to his position " (vol. i. pp. 399. 400). 



MR. CAMPBELL'S PEUVERSION. 79 

Alexander seems now to have perceived that 
speedy action must be had, else their cause was 
lost. He therefore resolved to take the step which 
it was becoming evident the larger portion of the 
Church demanded at the hands of himself and his 
father. Accordingly he made preparations to pro- 
cure his own immersion (vol. i. p. 895). When 
he went to communicate his intention to his father, 
an ally was found in the house in the person of his 
sister Dorothea (vol. i. p. 395). Naturally con- 
cerned to avoid an explosion in the Church, by 
means of which she might be required to decide 
between the affection she bore her parents, and her 
affection for the man to whom she was, perhaps, 
already betrothed, she had become, like Mr. Bryant, 
a decided advocate of immersion. If Bryant, and 
the majority of the little community at Brush Run, 
could have been induced to tolerate aspersion, it is 
probable that the Campbells would never have found 
it convenient to leave the side of the sprinkling 
Sandemanians. 

But affairs had taken a direction which it was not 
in their power to control, and they were compelled 
to follow the current. Alexander's previous acquaint- 
ance with the treatise of Archibald M'Lean on '' The 
Commission of Christ " must have now done him a 
service, giving him a rudder by which to steer his 
course. The father, then as always pliant before 
the stronger will of his son, was not disposed to 
offer any serious objections, and at the last moment 



80 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

decided to be immersed himself (vol. i. p. 376). 
The event occurred on the 12th of June 1812 ; the 
rite being performed by a Baptist minister of the 
Redstone Association, named Matthias Luce. Four 
days afterwards, thirteen other members of the 
Church were immersed by Thomas Campbelh The 
remainder, who would not accede to the new change, 
went their way, leaving behind them a Church of 
twenty members who were united in approbation 
of the course that had been pursued, and whose 
clamors perhaps had made it necessary. James 
Foster was one of the thirteen (vol. i. p. 403). 

A circumstance of personal concern to Alexander 
also had a certain share in the business of directing 
his attention to these issues. On the 13th of March 
1812, his first child was born. The question of in- 
fant-baptism, therefore, became to him a topic of 
special interest. Doubtless with reference to the 
scruples of James Foster, he had formerly urged 
that this point should be treated as a matter of for- 
bearance (vol. i. p. 392). That was the utmost 
limit to which he might safely advance if he desired 
to retain the sympathy and support of so important 
a personage. It does not appear that he had even 
ventured as far as that since the 5th of June 1811, 
possibly abstaining through fear of provoking an 
undesirable conflict. If now he had dared to baptize 
his own child, after its birth in March 1812, he must 
have done so with the conviction that the act would 
cost him the affections and the countenance of most 



MB, CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 81 

of the communicants at Brush Run. At any rate, 
he could not make up his mind to provoke the 
Church in that way; and, contrary to the position 
of Greville Ewing, his child was compelled to dis- 
pense with baptism. 

The winter of 1811-12 was in other directions 
an eventful one for the Brush Run Church. Fore- 
seeing that he would be constrained by the force 
of circumstances to take final leave of Mr. Ewing, 
Alexander began to take further lessons in the " an- 
cient order." Before the first day of January 1812, 
he had become convinced of the propriety of main- 
taining a plurality of elders in every church (vol. i. 
p. 385) ; and on that day he was ordained, possibly 
in order that the Church might be provided with a 
Presbytery after the Sandemanian model. On the 
occasion of Thomas Campbell's removal from the 
vicinity, in the year 1813, James Foster was or- 
dained in his place, that the Presbytery might not 
be destroyed by his absence (vol. i. pp. 458, 459). 
Plurality of elders had now, to all appearances, 
become the article of a standing or falling Church. 

While yet a resident of Rich Hill, Alexander had 
been made personally acquainted with one John 
Walker, a learned and unfortunate gentleman whose 
literalism had rendered him one of the most fantastic 
of all the Sandemanians (vol. i. p. 61). He was so 
far gone in the "ancient order" that he "sold his 
carriage and travelled on foot through Ireland, and 
also through England," proclaming the virtues of an 



82 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

exact conformity to the minutest details of it (voL 
i. p. 61). During the season here under review, Alex- 
ander seems to have returned to his youthful admira- 
tion for this exceedingly queer head. He attentively 
perused his writings, and to a degree made him the 
man of his counsel (vol. i. p. 466). It was from 
Walker, perhaps, that he obtained the singular notion 
about religious communion, which on the 26th of 
February 1812, caused him to question the propriety 
of family prayer wherever the family might be com- 
posed in part of unbelievers (vol. i. pp. 447-449 ; cf. 
p. 61). As has been already shown, numbers of the 
Scottish Sandemanians refused to maintain family 
prayer; but these generally referred their objections 
to a literalistic interpretation of the injunction which 
ordains that men shall enter into their closets alone, 
and there address the heavenly Father in secret. 
They likewise made much of the fact that there is 
no distinct biblical command enjoining in so many 
words the duty of praying in the family. The form 
in which Alexander's scruple was indicated, however, 
suggests rather the influence of Walker. 

The admiration he felt for this impossible character 
was never abated. In his last years he condemned 
himself because he had not kept closer to Walker's 
rigid and exclusive principles (vol. i. p. 454). As a 
specimen of that gentleman's extraordinary proceed- 
ings, it may not be amiss to mention a visit he made 
to Edinburgh, perhaps to confer with the Haldanes, 
who went very far in the direction of restoring " the 



ME. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION-, 83 

ancient order." The usual Sandemanian custom pre- 
scribes the Lord's Supper on every Lord's Day. But 
Walker could find nobody in all the city who was 
good enough to enjoy this rite of religious commun- 
ion, except the travelling companion wlio had made 
the journey with him, and a single student of medi- 
cine in the university. These three ate the elements 
alone. (Facts and Documents, p. 247.) Professor 
Richardson also records the fact that Walker's spirit- 
ual arrogance was cultivated to such an extreme 
" that it was a special point with him, strictly to pro- 
hibit the performance of any religious act without 
removing to a distance (if in the same room) from 
every person who refused to obey a precept that 
could be generally applied ; insisting that true wor- 
ship could be rendered only by those who receive 
and obey the same truths in common " (vol. i. p. 61). 
The arrogance of the Scottish Sandemanians did 
not always carry them quite so far, but it was not 
unusual for principles of this kind to be applied in 
the public worship of their churches on the Lord's 
Day. A Sandemanian Church of the immersion ob- 
servance had been established in the city of New 
York, in the autumn of the year 1810, under Elders 
Henry Erritt and William Ovington, which was quite 
as fantastic an institution as one could reasonably 
desire. Li the customary style of the party, they 
rejected all human creeds, rules, covenants, thinking 
the Scriptures perfect enough for direction in every 
thing. Church edifices were no part of the '' ancient 



84 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

order of things," neither were pulpits : they hired a 
hall, and claimed that it was not possible elsewhere 
to witness the sight of a church assembled together. 
(Benedict, History of the Baptists. Boston 1813. 
vol. ii. p. 409). This body held four public services 
in the week, at neither of which were any but com- 
municants admitted ; at another public service ap- 
pointed for Tuesday evening, they were willing to see 
the outside world, and to preach the gospel to them. 
(Benedict, as above.) In the year 1818, they had so 
far mended their manners as to permit the " world " 
to attend on Sunday evenings, after the regular wor- 
ship of the Church had been concluded, at which time 
the elders, and some others of the brethren approved 
by the Church, would be gracious enough to declare 
the gospel to them. (Christian Baptist, p. 389.) 

By some means Alexander had become aware of 
these ridiculous proceedings of the immersed Sande- 
manians, and was immediately captivated. He re- 
solved to copy them in that as well as in so many 
other singularities; and when, after his immersion, 
the Brush Run Church was re-organized on the basis 
of the "Scotch Baptists," no person ''was recognized 
as duly prepared to partake in religious services, 
except those who had professed to put on Christ in 
baptism." (Richardson, vol. i. p. 454.) 

The absurd tenor of his sentiments, and the sin- 
cerity of his conversion to these idle puerilities, may 
be illustrated by the fact that when he attended 
the session of the Redstone Association, in August 



MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 85 

1812, lie could not be induced to preach before the 
outside public, as other ministers were in the custom 
of doing. Every solicitation of that kind was de- 
clined. On the contrary, he was willing to discourse 
"one evening in a private family to some dozen 
preachers and twice as many laymen " (vol. i. p. 
440). This conduct would be inexplicable on any 
other supposition, except that Alexander's motto 
seems now to have suffered an alteration, by means 
of which it should read, " Where the Scotch Baptists 
speak, we speak ; " and not many of these could be 
found who went to more wretched extremes. 

Thomas Campbell, as usual, was the obedient echo 
of his son in the suggestions made by the latter in 
favor of this arrogant policy of exclusion (vol. i. 
pp. 449-454). If the father and son had but fol- 
lowed that policy continuously and consistently, it is 
not in the least probable that our country would have 
been burdened with the shame and evils of Mormon- 
ism, — which grew out of the Disciples' movement, 
— since their influence would have been so much 
circumscribed that their enterprise could have affected 
few persons besides themselves and their immediate 
dependents. 

A portion of the winter of 1811-12 was also devoted 
to the task of acquiring the doctrine and the dialect 
of the Sandemanians in relation to faith. In a letter 
directed to Mr. Robert B. Semple in April 1826, 
Alexander informs him that he had " appropriated one 
winter season for examining this subject." (Chris- 



86 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

tian Bap., p. 228.) The facts, however, as they are 
set down by his biographer, show that this was not 
an entirely correct reminiscence ; for, in addition to 
his investigations regarding the nature of faith, it is 
clear, from what has been said above, that he also 
found time to investigate and accept the Sandemanian 
doctrine concerning the plurality of elders ; to change 
his mind about the action of baptism and about the 
propriety of infant-baptism ; to adopt the notions of 
the Sandemanians of the straitest sect in favor of ex- 
cluding from the worship of the Church all persons 
who were not members of the Church ; and to discuss 
the absurd proposition to discontinue family prayer 
in cases w^here all the members of the household might 
not be fortunate enough to relish the fantastic con- 
ceits of the party to which he was now inclined. He 
had long previously made the discovery upon which 
the average Sandemanian was likely to value himself, 
to the effect that Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath 
day (vol. i. p. 347) ; but it was only during the win- 
ter in question, that the sentiments of himself and 
the community which he led became so much the 
topic of public remark as to excite the report that 
they " paid no respect to the Sabbath " (vol. i. pp. 
432-435). 

Returning to the subject of faith, Alexander de- 
scribes as follows the method in which he pursued 
his investigation : " I assembled all the leading wTit- 
ers of that day on these subjects. I laid before me 
Robert Sandeman, Hervey, Marshall, Bellamy, Glas, 



' MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 87 

Cudworth, and others of minor fame in this contro- 
versy. I not only read, but studied, and wrote off 
in miniature, their respective views. I had Paul and 
Peter, James and John, on the same table. I took 
nothing upon trust. I did not care for the authority, 
reputation, or standing of one of the systems, a grain 
of sand. I never weighed the consequences of em- 
bracing any one of the systems as affecting my stand- 
ing or reputation in the world. Truth (not who says 
so) was my sole object. I found much entertainment 
in the investigation ; and I will not blush, nor do I 
fear to say, that, in this controversy, Sandeman was 
like a giant among dwarfs. He was like Samson 
with the posts of Gaza on his shoulders." (Christian 
Bap., p. 228.) 

It would have been nearly impossible for a person 
of his present connections and situation, especially 
one who was so much lacking in respect to independ- 
ence of mind and theological capacity and culture, 
to have reached a different conclusion. Here, as at 
so many other points, Alexander was the unquestion- 
ing slave of his masters. 

In case the representations made by Professor 
Kichardson are complete, the revolution which took 
place in Alexander's mind, by which he became a 
subject of Sandeman in the matter of faith, began in 
the month of October 1811 (vol. i. p. 413), and was 
completed in the month of March 1812 (vol. i. p. 
422). In connection with it he carried forward a 
correspondence with his father, perhaps chiefly for 



88 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

the purpose of showing him deference. The harm- 
less old gentleman was incapable of rendering any 
considerable assistance in his enterprises, but it was 
in his power to offer a deal of resistance in case he 
were not duly coddled and conciliated. As on every 
other occasion, Thomas Campbell played the r81e of 
a convenient echo. It is surprising to witness the 
readiness with which he could repeat at first blush 
such Sandemanian watchwords as " the bare belief of 
the naked truth," and affirm, against the convictions of 
a lifetime, that this "involuntary, unavoidable faith" 
was sufficient to procure salvation (vol. i. p. 419). 
In requesting baptism at the hands of Matthias 
Luce, Alexander, in due subjection to the authority 
of Archibald M'Leaft as laid down in his work styled 
" The Commission of Christ Illustrated," says he had 
stipulated " that it should be performed into the name 
of the Father, etc., and not in the name^ as was then 
and now is usual among the regular Baptists." 
(Memoirs of Thomas Campbell, p. 114.) Moreover, 
it was not his object, in seeking immersion, to unite 
with the Baptists of America. On the contrary, 
he declares, " I had no idea of uniting with the Bap- 
tists " (vol. i. p. 439.) Not many months had 
psssed by, however, before that purpose entered his 
mind ; and in order to accomplish it he was willing, 
in the month of August 1813, to violate one of the 
leading Sandemanian tenets, and to contradict the 
teachings of the famous " Declaration and Address," 
by composing for the purpose a sort of confession of 



MR. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION. 89 

his faith, which, if it could now be procured, would 
possibly supply an amount of interesting reading 
(vol. i. p. 440). 

But he was never at that or any other moment, 
either by sympathy or by conviction, a Baptist. In a 
private letter under date of Dec. 28, 1815, more than 
two years after his Church had been received into the 
fraternity of the Redstone Baptist Association, he 
describes his situation in the following terms : " I am 
now an Independent " (or Sandemanian) " in Church 
government; ... of that faith and view of the 
gospel exhibited in John Walker's seven letters to 
Alexander Knox; and a Baptist in so far as respects 
baptism " (vol. i. p. 466). 

During the period between the year 1812 and 
1820, Alexander relapsed into a condition of mere 
vegetation. In the year 1816, he was able to excite a 
small controversy by a discourse on " the law " before 
the Redstone Association, where, in keeping with his 
Sandemanian principles, he thought the preaching 
of the gospel was sufficient to produce the "bare 
belief of the bare truth," and therefore maintained 
that it was unnecessary and reprehensible to per- 
suade men by the terrors of the Lord. He also be- 
came to a degree interested in the missionary cause 
(Christian Baptist, p. 17 and p. 72), which the Red- 
stone Association was then prosecuting with some 
kind of vigor. (Benedict, History of the Baptists, 
New York 1856, p. 615.) 

The year 1820, however, was full of events that 



90 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

supplied him fresh incitement, and opened for him a 
career. The month of April brought him a news- 
paper discussion on the question regarding the Sab- 
bath (vol. i. p. 522), in which he embraced an 
opportunity of setting forth and maintaining the 
customary Sandemanian distinctions with much 
length and logomachy. The month of June brought 
him an oral discussion about the action and subjects 
of baptism, with the Rev. Mr. Walker of the Seceder 
Church. These occurrences served to arouse him 
from his long-continued lethargy, as well as to call 
the attention of circles to his abilities as a rhetori- 
cian, which had not previously been aware of his 
existence. 



BAPTISM FOB BEMISSIOIST OF SlJSfS. 91 



CHAPTER IX. 

BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS. 

The most important impulse that the year 1820 
had in store for Mr. Campbell was conveyed to him 
in a doctrinal pamphlet that was published and sent 
forth by the " Scotch Baptist " Church of New-York 
City. This body was, perhaps, pleased to regard 
itself as, in a certain sort, the leader of sentiment 
among the churches of that persuasion in this coun- 
try. The pamphlet referred to was largely devoted 
to a treatment of the design of baptism. It was for- 
warded, we may suppose, to all the Sandemanian 
churches of the immersion observance in America, 
if not also to those in the British Islands as well. 
One of these existed at the moment in Pittsburg, 
under the pastoral supervision of Mr. Walter Scott, 
one of the principal co-laborers of the Campbells. 
A copy was conveyed to him. The work also fell 
into the hands of Alexander and his father. (Life' bf 
Elder Walter Scott, by William Baxter, Cincinnati 
1874, p. 47.) They all perused it with more or less 
of avidity ; it was the subject of a number of eager 
conferences between the trio. (Richardson, vol. ii. p. 
83.) Alexander had it on his mind at the debate with 



92 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

Mr. Walker, and ventured to employ the position 
which it maintained in one of his addresses against 
the practice of infant-baptism, asserting that ''baptism 
is connected with the promise of the remission of sin 
and the gift of the Holy Spirit " (vol. ii. p. 20). 

Here was the beginning of a new departure. The 
document of the New- York Church contains the same 
view regarding the design of baptism to which the 
Campbells later gave in their adhesion (Life of Scott, 
by Baxter, pp. 47-53); it was also published by 
Scott in one of the numbers of " The Evangelist," a 
monthly periodical which he edited respectively in 
Cincinnati and Cambridge, O. The same texts which 
the sect of Disciples (or Campbellites) are in the 
habit of setting forward are produced in this pam- 
phlet, and handled much in the same way, in order 
to support the conclusion that baptism was designed 
for the remission of sins. 

But Alexander was disposed to approach this busi- 
ness in a gingerly fashion. It was manifest that the 
sentiments advanced by the men of New York were 
nothing else than a development of the views ex- 
pressed by Archibald M'Lean, the father of the 
" Scotch Baptists," in his famous work entitled 
"The Commission of Christ," which had been for 
many years in the hands of the Campbells. (See 
McLean's Commission, edit. 1, p. 133.) At that 
place this author declares, " To be baptized for the 
remission^ or washing-away^ of sins^ plainly imports, 
that in baptism the remission of sins is represented 



BAPTISM FOB BEMISSION OF SINS. 93 

as really conferred upon the believer. The gospel 
promises in general, ' That, through Christ's name, 
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission 
of sins.' Baptism applies this promise, and repre- 
sents its actual accomplishment to an individual be- 
liever, assuring him that all his past sins are now 
as really washed away in baptism by the blood of 
Christ, as his body is washed in water." He also 
says (pp. 131, 132, note), " As to the necessity of 
baptism to salvation, it is no stronger expressed in 
these passages " (John iii. 5, and Tit. iii. 5), " than 
in some others concerning which there is no dispute, 
such as, ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved ' (Mark xvi. 16) ; ' The like figure whereunto 
baptism doth also now save us,' etc. (1 Pet. iii. 21) ; 
'Be baptized, and wash away thy sins' (Acts xxii. 
16)." (A Disciple firm of publishers in Cincinnati, 
O., have republished this work from the third Edin- 
burgh edition. In the year 1871 there had been five 
editions of the American reprint.) 

But from the manner in which M'Lean, in this 
work, guards some of his utterances, it might be in 
the power of an opponent to affirm that it was not 
entirely warrantable to represent that author as a 
thorough-paced advocate of the theory of baptismal 
remission. His New-York followers, on the other 
hand, had fully, and without much hesitation, taken 
their stand upon this dogma. Alexander, however, 
is considered to have felt some misgiving as to 
whether these gentlemen were of canonical author- 



94 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, 

ity. It is not, perhaps, entirely accidental, therefore, 
that, in his published version of the debate with Mr. 
Walker, he appears on both sides of the issue touch- 
ing the design of baptism. (Compare Richardson 
vol. ii. p. 20, with vol. ii. pp. 36, 37.) Nevertheless, 
the question was not of small concern to him. The 
topic of the New-York pamphlet was often the theme 
of remark. (Richardson, vol. ii. p. 83.) When the 
" Christian Baptist " was sent forth in the year 1823, 
it was among the first matters that were put forward 
for treatment. In the second number of the periodi- 
cal, under date of Sept. 1, 1823, an article that bears 
the marks of careful preparation is published, in 
which the writer confidently takes his stand on the 
side of the New-Yorkers, and pleads the propriety 
of the sentiments which were enunciated in their 
pamphlet of the year 1820. Thomas Campbell, who 
was not responsible, and whose opinions could easily 
be disclaimed in case any strong objections were 
heard against them, was put forward in this way to 
feel the public pulse. (Christian Baptist, pp. 11-13.) 
In the month of October 1823, Alexander was 
engaged in a public debate with the Rev. Mr. Mc- 
Calla, a Presbyterian divine, at Washington in Mason 
County, Kentucky, in which the action and the sub- 
jects of baptism were again treated. Here he like- 
wise found courage enough to indorse the New- York 
authorities in his own proper person, by setting forth 
the position and the arguments which they had 
employed in their publication. (Richardson, ii. pp. 



BAPTISM FOR B EMISSION OF SINS. 95 

80-83.) But he was still so much disposed to hesi- 
tate regarding their canonicity, that his scruples at 
a later date more than once took him over to the 
other side of the issue. (Chiistian Baptist, pp. 68, 
67, TO, p. 64.) 

In October 1824, a second advance was made 
towards the principles which the New-York Sande- 
manians had laid down ; and Thomas Campbell was 
in this instance likewise employed to perform the 
delicate task, Alexander being still in a state of 
incertitude regarding the question whether it would 
be prudent and popular for him to espouse their 
cause. The article which his father was now 
employed to write was of twice the length of that 
which he had previously produced, and in some 
respects more decided. (Christian Baptist, pp. 99- 
101.) In December 1824, the father again engages 
to enlighten the " professing worl^ " upon the signifi- 
cance and importance of what the New- York theo- 
logians had laid so heavily upon his own mind. 
(Christian Baptist, p. 115.) Various other expedients 
were devised to keep the point before the public. In 
the month of May 1826, a writer who appears under 
the nom de plume of " Independent Baptist," who is 
suspected to be no other than Alexander, asserts in 
round terms " that the baptismal water washes away 
sin, and is the only Divinely appointed pledge that 
the blood of Christ has cleansed the conscience of 
the obedient disciple." (Christ. Bap., p. 236.) That 
his mind was strongly engaged in that direction, may 



96 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

also be perceived from occasional references to the 
topic which are elsewhere scattered up and down in 
the pages of his periodical. Among these, attention 
may be directed to the more or less covert allusions 
on p. 94, p. 118, and p. 351, respectively. 

In October 1827, he contrives to throw off a por- 
tion of his constitutional timidity, and to employ in 
his own person language that, with considerable 
definiteness, signifies that he had now made up his 
mind to become an avowed convert to the New York 
theory. He says (Christian Baptist, p. 881), " Elder 
John Secrest told me, at the meeting of the Mahon- 
ing Association, Ohio, on the 27th ult., that he had 
immersed three hundred persons within the last three 
months. I asked him, 'Into what did he immerse 
them?' He replied, he 'immersed them into the 
faith of Christ for the remission of their sins.' 
Many of them were the descendants of Quakers, and 
those who had formerly waited for the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit in the Quaker sense of those words. But 
brother Secrest had succeeded in convincing them 
that the one baptism was not that of Pentecost, nor 
that repeated in Csesarea, but an immersion into, the 
faith of Jesus for the remission of their sins. . . . 
Thus while my friend Common Sense, and his two 
Baptist doctors, are speculating on what regeneration 
is, brother Secrest has by the proclamation of repent- 
ance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and immersion for the remission of sins, been 
the means of regenerating three hundred in three 
months, in the proper import of the term." 



BAPTISM FOR BEMISSION OF SIJSTS. 97 

These statements have the appearance of being 
uttered by a person who had finally made up his 
mind to assume a definite position, and to maintain 
it against all who might come forward to oppose him. 
Moreover, the seed that, since the year 1820, he had 
been sowing with so much care and covert art, had 
already taken root in some quarters. In more than 
one section of the country persons who chanced to 
be under his influence were proclaiming the conceit 
of the New-York Church. During the year 1826, 
Jeremiah Vardeman had been advocating it in Ken- 
tucky, and professed to entertain a degree of satisfac- 
tion in administering the ceremony of baptism that 
was superior to any thing he had known before 
he was rightly instructed in the New- York theory. 
(Richardson, vol. ii. pp. 287, 288.) B. F. Hall was 
also on the same ground, with the same message, in 
the same year of grace (vol. ii. pp. 388, 389). 
Adamson Bentley and Jacob Osborne were declaring 
it to the people of Ohio in 1827, as well as John 
Secrest already mentioned above (vol. ii. pp. 207, 
208). It was indeed high time for Alexander, if he 
desired to remain at the head of the movement, to 
declare in public his adhesion to the notion of bap- 
tismal remission. 

But a number of trials were still to meet him 
before he should finally gain his consent to formally 
announce his acceptance of what seemed long since 
to have become his favorite tenet. Walter Scott, 
who in other years had been his co-laborer in Pitts- 



98 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

burg, was appointed, at its session in September 
1827, as the missionary of the Mahoning Association 
in Ohio. This arrangement had been effected under 
the oversight and largely through the influence of 
Alexander, and he hoped that many advantages 
might accrue from it in the way of perverting the 
Baptists of that body to Sandemanian opinions and 
customs (vol. ii. pp. 173, 174; cf. p. 206). 

Notwithstanding the circumstances that Elder 
Scott had been often admitted to conferences that 
were held touching the New- York notion (vol. ii. p. 
83), and though, as Campbell declares, he had been 
definitely advised by Scott to introduce that opinion 
into the debate with McCalla in October 1823, yet 
this person, if one may judge from his writings in the 
"Christian Baptist," prior to November 1827, had 
never contrived to get any practical hold or under- 
standing of that tenet. Nay, when he heard it pro- 
mulgated by Jacob Osborne in the early autumn of 
1827, it is said to have struck him with surprise 
(vol. ii. p. 208). Not long afterwards, however, he 
was, by some agency of which no distinct account 
has been given, made sensible of the meaning and 
importance of the new departure which Alexander 
had been pushing ever since the reception of the cir- 
cular about baptismal remission, in the year 1820; 
and he took hold of the idea with his customary en- 
thusiasm and precipitation. The first discourse that 
he delivered in favor of it was not rewarded by 
any visible results (vol. ii. p. 209). It served the 



BAPTISM FOB BEMISSION OF SINS. 99 

purpose, however, of rendering him broad awake to 
the excellency of an opinion which a number of his 
brethren in the vicinity where he was laboring had 
been some length of time proclaiming. The only 
apparent obstacle in the way of his action in thus 
going forward lay in the fact that he was occupying 
an official relation to the Mahoning Baptist Associa- 
tion, and it was wholly uncertain how that body 
would be disposed to regard this flagrant departure 
from the principles of the Baptist community. 
Alexander was justly uneasy regarding the issue, 
especially since, in case the churches which had em- 
ployed Scott should repudiate him, the most of the 
blame would attach to himself, who had perhaps 
suggested this expedient, and selected his long-time 
associate and disciple for the position. 

Notwithstanding the manifest perils of the situa- 
tion for his principal, Scott, in the enthusiasm of a 
new convert, was resolved to press forward. On the 
18th of November 1827, he appointed a meeting at 
New Lisbon, O., in which he announced that he would 
fully discuss " the ancient gospel " (vol. ii. p. 210 
and p. 212). Here at his first discourse he secured 
his earliest convert ; and this may be set down as in 
some sort the natal day of the modern Disciple move- 
ment. Before the series of meetings at New Lisbon 
were concluded, Scott had succeeded in persuading 
seventeen persons to be immersed for the remission 
of sins. 

This conduct on his part rendered it necessary that 



100 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

he should make a speedy visit to the leader of the 
movement at his residence in Virginia. (Hayden, 
History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 
p. 93.) The two friends must have discussed the haz- 
ards to which the precipitancy of Scott had exposed 
their cause in Ohio, and the probabilities that he had 
effected the destruction of Alexander's hope to per- 
vert the entire Association from the doctrines which 
they had hitherto maintained. The situation was in- 
deed critical, and the slightest mishap would have 
brought upon them extreme disaster. Scott's energies 
were therefore excited to their fullest tension ; it was 
necessary to accomplish the work of perversion as 
far as possible before the date appointed for the next 
session of the Mahoning Association, in order that 
objections which might be confidently anticipated 
should be silenced, or that the party of opponents 
might be defied. In this enterprise he was successful 
to a high degree ; and from the 18th of November 
1827, the notion of baptism for the remission of sins 
was officially recognized as a part of the faith of the 
Disciples. 

In January 1828, Alexander got courage enough 
to lend a helping hand by commencing a series of 
articles in the " Christian Baptist," on the " ancient 
gospel," where he comes out boldly on behalf of the 
opinion which hitherto he was in doubt whether he 
should publicly and irrevocably avow. By a very 
adroit contrivance he is skilful enough in the first of 
these to represent John Secrest, a Kentucky preacher 



BAPTISM FOR BEMISSION OF SINS. 101 

of the Stoneite or Christian party, as proclaiming this 
opinion with distinguished success on the Western 
Reserve. " Elder John Secrest," he reports, " told 
me on the 23d of November, in my own house, that, 
since the Mahoning Association last met, he had im- 
mersed with his own hands one hundred and ninety, 
thus lacking only ten of five hundred in about five 
months — for it is not more than five months since he 
began to proclaim the gospel and Christian immer- 
sion in its primitive simplicity and import." (Chris- 
tian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 402.) 

This second allusion to the labors of Secrest would 
be, at that moment, a desirable diversion in favor of 
Scott, by assuring the people of the region where they 
were both employed that the latter was not alone in 
the innovation that he was practising. But at a later 
time, when Scott manifested a disposition to claim 
the most of the credit for the prosperity and success 
of the Disciples' enterprise, the above extract was 
the occasion of an amount of ill feeling. Scott ap- 
pears to have conceived the idea that Campbell was 
jealous of him, and had inserted the statement that 
has been cited with the purpose to deprive him of his 
just honors. 



102 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 



CHAPTER X. 

OTHER ITEMS. 

The founder of the Disciples was highly reticent 
regarding the nature and extent of his obligations to 
the Sandemanians, whether of the aspersion or of the 
immersion observance. The occasions were compara- 
tively rare when he could be induced to reveal his 
counsels in that direction. At the head of the " Chris- 
tian Baptist " he had placed as a motto the passage, 
" Style no man on earth your father, for He alone is 
your Father who is in heaven, and all ye are breth- 
ren ; " and it was considered important, that, in ac- 
cordance with this injunction, little should be reported 
concerning the Sandemanians, who were his own 
masters on earth. It was likewise an element of 
strength in that class of the community whom he had 
access to, that he should make a large parade of his 
intellectual independence, and sometimes of his " eru- 
dition " (McCalla, Debate on Baptism, Buffalo 1824, 
p. 124), a quality with which he was also but moder- 
ately provided. 

William Jones, who, after the death of Archibald 
M'Lean, became the leader of the " Scotch Baptists," 
or Sandemanians of the immersion observance, em- 



OTHER ITEMS. 103 

braces the opportunity to disburthen his mind regard- 
ing this clear instance of ingratitude, which was pro- 
vided by a letter he addressed to Mr. Campbell on 
the 16th of March 1835. (Millennial Harbinger, 
1835, pp. 298-300.) From the representations there 
set forth, this kind of " childish vanity " must have 
been the common failing of a number of those churches 
which, in Ireland and America, had descended from 
the " Scotch Baptists." John Walker, the fellow of 
Trinity College, Dublin, for whom, even down to his 
latest days, Mr. Campbell felt an extravagant admi- 
ration, is sorely chastised for his crimes of omission 
at this point. Mr. Jones professes to be able to prove 
that Walker owed his earliest impulse in favor of 
Sandemanianism to the writings of Archibald M'Lean, 
and pities ''those individuals who, through the pride 
and envy of their hearts, have scorned to acknowl- 
edge their obligations to the servants of God whose 
labors have been so useful to them." (Mill. Harb., 
as above, p. 299.) 

In America he is particularly severe upon the con- 
duct of the New- York Church, for their neglect to 
feel any gratitude towards those Churches in the 
Fatherland to whom they owed much thanks. Speak- 
ing of the circular which had been sent forth by 
that organization, in the year 1818, to many of the 
prominent "Scotch Baptist" Churches in England 
and America, regarding the "ancient order of things," 
and afterwards published under the title of "The 
First Part of an Epistolary Correspondence between 



104 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

the Churches in America and Europe," Mr. Jones 
complains, that, " though it is well known that those 
individuals had gone out from this country, and 
carried their principles with them, there is not the 
smallest reference, in all their narratives, to the source 
whence they derived them." (Mill. Harb., 1835, p. 
298.) Nor does he quite spare the Disciples, remind- 
ing Mr. Campbell that he would not deny that his 
own churches took their origin from the "Scotch 
Baptists." (Mill. Harb., 1835, p. 300.) 

In reply to these just complaints, Alexander allows 
his personal obligations, but is content to express 
these in terms of such shadowy generality as in 
effect almost to deny them. At the close of the 
letter in which these concessions are made, he adds, 
"But now. Brother Jones, after all these acknowl- 
edgments for myself and my brethren, I have no 
hesitation in saying that there will be found views 
of the Christian institution wholly new^ as far as the 
works of all the schools to which I have alluded are 
concerned. This I say not from vanity, nor from 
pretensions to originality; but from a conviction, 
before God, that it is due to all the citizens of 
Christ's kingdom, in Europe and America, to state 
that the cause we plead is at least something in 
advance of even the Scotch, or English, or American 
Baptists, as I have no doubt will appear to yourself 
from a careful examination of the books forwarded 
you." (Mill. Harb., 1835, pp. 306, 307.) 

It must be conceded that he has embraced some 



OTHER ITEMS. 105 

items in his creed which may not be found in the 
works of his masters, the " Scotch Baptists." These 
were immediately insisted upon by Mr. Jones with 
so much emphasis as to defeat the hopes which at 
one time Alexander would seem to have entertained 
to the effect that it might be in his power to swallow 
up the "Scotch Baptists," and celebrate another 
triumph of that Christian union which he professed 
to believe would in the end destroy all " sects and 
sectism " by comprehending every one of the various 
Churches of the Christian world in his own Church. 
This would have been a splendid ambition if it had 
not been supremely ridiculous. 

The most important particular in which he de- 
parted from the theology of the "Scotch Baptist" 
writers consists in the fact that he surrendered the 
Calvinism in which he had been educated, in favor 
of Arminian sentiments. In the present state of 
research, it is not possible to suggest the precise time 
and circumstances in Vfhich Alexander accomplished 
this change. His biographer is entirely at fault here, 
and leaves the reader wholly without information. 
Indeed, both himself and his hero appear to have 
been fresh enough to believe that they were not 
really Arminians as long as they omitted to desig- 
nate themselves by that title, no matter how firmly 
and consistently they might profess and support 
Arminian principles. This policy, which after the 
fashion of the ostrich leads them to imagine that 
they are sufficiently concealed by covering their head 



106 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

in the sand, is one of the most amusing foibles of the 
Disciples. 

However, it would appear that as late as the year 
1811, Alexander had not yet turned away from his 
Calvinistic convictions; since in his notes on the 
writings of John Walker, made at that season, he has 
set down, apparently with approval, the substance 
of one of his author's chapters against Arminianism. 
(Richardson, vol. i. p. 446.) He was likely still in 
favor of Calvinistic views as late as the 28th of 
December 1816, on which date he informed his uncle 
Archibald, in a letter addressed to him in Ireland, 
that he was " of that faith and view of the gospel 
exhibited in John Walker's seven letters to Alex- 
ander Knox " (vol. i. p. 466). 

There have been few more absurd hyper-Calvinists 
than was John Walker, and it would be difficult to 
embrace his " faith and view of the gospel " without 
in some degree partaking of that sentiment. But in 
the absence of more definite information regarding 
the portion of Mr. Campbell's life that lies between 
1811 and 1820, it would be in vain to speculate about 
the date and circumstances of his perversion to 
Arminian opinions. We must content ourselves with 
the simple fact that when he began to set forth a 
printed record of his position, in the " Christian Bap- 
tist," he was already a confirmed opponent of the 
system of the Calvinists. Thomas Campbell was 
permitted to retain his Calvinism, but only as a sort 
of philosophy, or other attenuated appendage. In 



OTHER ITEMS. 107 

this sublimated capacity it would do no great amount 
of harm, while it might serve to remind them of the 
source whence they had sprung, and upon occasion to 
furnish a bond of sympathy with the " Scotch Bap- 
tists," in case it were deemed prudent at any time 
to attempt the project of effecting a union with them. 

It must be allowed that Mr. Campbell's adhesion 
to Arminian views suited much better with his theory 
of baptismal remission, than the Calvinism in which 
he had been reared and trained. To discard the sys- 
tem of Calvin for the behoof of the New- York theory, 
and to embrace Arminianism in its stead, would at 
least indicate that he had an eye for symmetry. 

A very considerable result of this abandonment of 
Calvinism appears in the fact that Mr. Campbell was 
thereby enabled to deny the doctrine which he had 
preached in his early time, that spiritual influences 
of some sort must co-operate with the word before 
the sinner will exercise faith. According to the 
scheme of the "ancient gospel" which Walter Scott 
elaborated, the operations of the Holy Spirit must 
be confined entirely to those who are already in a 
saved estate. His much-boasted ordo salutis was : (1) 
Faith, (2) Repentance, (3) Immersion, (4) Remission 
of sins, and (5) The Holy Spirit. To the Third Per- 
son of the Trinity was conceded unchecked access to 
the hearts of believers ; but it was not allowed him to 
influence the hearts of unbelievers, and it was some- 
times even attempted to show that the act of faith 
was such an easy matter that there was no need of 



108 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

his assistance in order that it might be effected. 
Nevertheless, the leaders of the movement had a deal 
of trouble to explain the circumstance, that, since 
faith is wholly the result of testimony, some of those 
who attended their own ministry should accept the 
testimony they were in the custom of imparting, 
while others of equal or superior capacity for sifting 
and weighing testimony would turn unaffected away 
from it. (Richardson, vol. i. p. 427, and vol. ii. pp. 
150-163.) 

This same arbitrary method of dictating to the Holy 
Spirit what might be the sphere and limits of his oper- 
ations may be found in the writings that the Congre- 
gational minister, Mr. W. Cudworth, sent forth in his 
controversy against Robert Sandeman, which have 
already been mentioned on a previous page. (Wil- 
liam Jones of England, in the Mill. Harbinger, 1835, 
p. 443.) Cudworth also advanced, in the same works, 
the singular hypothesis that the word of Scripture is 
the Spirit ; a fancy that was approved and elaborated 
in the well-known Dialogue between Timothy and 
Austin, which Mr. Campbell sent forth in the pages 
of the " Harbinger." (Jones in Mill. Harbinger, as 
above.) 

In the winter of 1811-12, which Mr. Campbell 
appropriated to the examination of these issues, the 
work of Cudworth was one of the books that he 
studied. Writing to his father on the 28th of March, 
1812, Alexander says, "I have read about one-half of 
Cudworth this week. Will give you my sentiments 



OTHEB ITEMS. 109 

respecting his performance in my next." (Richardson, 
vol. i. p. 425.) Unhappily Professor Richardson has 
failed to insert the letter in which his cogitations 
about the production of Cudworth are recorded. 
If that were supplied, it is possible that a degree of 
assistance might accrue to the labors of students in 
this department. As the writings of Cudworth can- 
not be consulted at the present moment, it is not 
possible to form a conclusion with any degree of 
detail as to how far the positions assumed by Mr. 
Campbell may correspond to the opinions which that 
singular author has enunciated. It is just to state, 
however, that Mr. Campbell assures his English critic 
that he reprobates the notion of Cudworth. (Mill. 
Harb., 1835, p. 463.) It is equally just to add that 
this same notion is distinctly advocated in the Dia- 
logue between Timothy and Austin. 

Mr. Jones likewise informs us that those persons 
in England who took up with the opinion of Cud- 
worth " have, in process of time, verged into Socini- 
anism or Deism, among whom were some of the 
elders of our (Scotch Baptist) Churches." Accord- 
ing to this account, therefore, the immersed Sande- 
manians of the mother country were affected by these 
extraordinary conceits touching the Holy Spirit, as 
well as their brethren under the lead of Mr. Camp- 
bell in America. And it is, further, no secret at all 
that Mr. Campbell and a portion of his adherents 
were much suspected of a leaning towards the tenets 
of Socinianism or Arianism. This suspicion was 



110 THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST. 

aroused at an early period, — even before the Disci- 
ples had entered upon any official church relations 
with the Unitarian followers of Barton W. Stone in 
Kentucky, — as may be seen in the pages of the 
" Christian Baptist," pp. 50 and 216. For a number 
of years he was at great pains to clear himself and 
his people of imputations of this nature that were 
laid against them. After the comprehension of the 
Stoneite party in Kentucky, these suspicions became 
more numerous than ever ; and it was a tedious task 
to meet the objections that were excited by that 
action. 

It is hardly necessary to ransack the literature of 
the Sandemanians of Europe for traces of the dis- 
tinction that was so much approved and employed 
by Mr. Campbell, between faith and opinion, and is 
the chief prop of the Plea for Christian Union. Noth- 
ing could be more easy than to fall upon tliis expe- 
dient without the aid of a special counsellor. The 
appearance of arrogance which induces him to assert 
that the confessions of faith, set forth by various 
Christian churches, are merely confessions of opin- 
ion (Christian Baptist, p. 216), is not an unusual 
display in the ranks of the smaller sects. In general, 
the opinion of Mr. Campbell, touching the meaning 
of a given passage of Scripture, was too likely to be 
regarded as a point of faith, while the equally careful 
and honest conclusions of others who, to say the 
least, were not less competent than himself, were 
somewhat haughtily denounced as unworthy of that 



OTEEE ITEMS. Ill 

high distinction. In the debate that occurred be- 
tween himself and the Rev. N. L. Rice, at Lexington, 
Ky. (Nov. 15 to Dec. 2, 1843), he was sorely pressed 
to declare the point where faith begins and opinion 
ends (Debate, p. 813), but was not able to bring 
forward any satisfactory reply. (Debate, pp. 835, 
836.) 

Nevertheless, the distinction proved to be practi- 
cally serviceable in enabling his people to compre- 
hend within their communion a number of persons 
believing in Unitarian and Universalist tenets, who 
"were willing to promise that they would hold this 
item of their faith as a mere opinion. It was not 
long, however, until he was constrained to deplore 
an unfortunate condition of affairs, and to complain 
that " all sorts of doctrines, by almost all sorts of 
men," were proclaimed among his adherents. 

The different sects and systems which we have 
been considering are extreme, and in several re- 
spects fantastic, developments of the principles of 
Protestantism, and especially of that principle which 
asserts the necessity of returning to the Bible as the 
standard of faith and action. The literalism which 
is an abuse of Protestantism was pretty well dis- 
played in each of them, and in several instances it 
became absurd and injurious. 

In conclusion, it is believed that the statement 
with which the present treatise was begun has been 
shown to be true. The Disciples of Christ are the 
direct descendants of the Sandemanians ; it is possible 



112 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

to point out in the literature of Sandemanianism 
the source whence Mr. Campbell derived almost every- 
one of his religious opinions. If he ever had an ori- 
ginal idea, he took pains to avoid giving expression 
to it in such of his writings as have been submitted 
to the inspection of the public. 



